On the road with the high 'Cs'
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Although the Royal Opera House Covent Garden refused to go on tour to Manchester when celebrating its 250th anniversary, thanks to road transport other opera companies can be more adventurous. Tone-deaf REG DAWSON looks at this littleknown area of road haulage operations
"IF YOU'VE got it, a truck brought it" is a good PR slogan — crisp, accurate and credible. It is also widely applicable.
It seems unlikely that in devising it, York Trailers' PR men were thinking of touring grand opera companies, yet these are quite as dependent on road transport as any purely industrial activity. Banish visions of two upright pianos and an amateur cast touring suburban and village halls with a Transit and a hired coach. Imagine instead the transport needs of fully professional companies with orchestras of 60 or more players, a chorus of about the same size, and an army of backstage technicians, wardrobe staff, music librarians and other nonperformers — about 250 people in all.
Against this background it is not surprising that many commercial sponsors who have supported the various opera companies have concentrated on providing assistance with transport requirements.
Four opera companies spend most of their time touring: the Scottish Opera based in Glasgow, Welsh National based in Cardiff, Opera North in Leeds, and Kent Opera in Ashford.
Two other companies have a different pattern of activity. Glyndebourne Touring Opera has only a five week season each autumn, taking around the country, with a young cast, the productions which have delighted the champagne-picnicking dinner-jacketed set in Sussex during the previous summer. And the English National Opera spends most of its time at its London base in the Coliseum theatre, but also undertakes one or two British tours each year.
Most of the theatres used by touring companies do not have storage space for the vast amounts of scenery used in opera productions. In any one week a company will normally perform at least three different operas; hardly any theatre can accommodate more than one set at a time, if that. This means that when the curtain comes down at the end of Act 1 the scenery often has to be loaded straight into a trailer.
But putting scenery into a trailer presupposes that the trailer has been able to reach the scenery door and these doors are usually tucked away in little alleys behind theatres; just the sort of places which theatregoing motorists tend to regard as safely away from traffic wardens' eyes. It is quite common for drivers to have to summon help from stagehands to lift cars out of the way so that the performance can take place.
Use of outside contractors relieves the opera companies' technical staff of most transport worries. The other four companies, however, maintain that this is a more expensive way of doing things. Money for the arts, always scarce at the best of times, demands maximum economy in present circumstances. They therefore run their own fleets, supplemented where necessary by hiring.
Although it does not seem to have been the reason for the decision to got it alone, all four companies which run their own transport have attracted sponsorship of their road transport activities. This sponsorship has varied in scale, duration and type, but all acknowledge that it has been of very great assistance to them. In turn they have done their best to ensure that the sponsors benefit, through having their names prominently displayed on the sides of the vehicles, and mentioned in the programmes.
Probably the biggest sponsorship deal is that between Wincanton Vehicle Rentals and the English national Opera. The ENO had a fleet of very elderly trailers, which were both unreliable in operation and expensive to maintain. Moreover, they were not ideally fitted out internally for their specialist operation, and were not well suited for operating in London traffic.
Shortly after taking up his post as ENO's Technical Director, Noel Staunton realised that something would have to be done, and (like transport managers elsewhere) drew up a plan for a completely new fleet. Inevitably, the money was not available, and he was told to go away and think of another solution to the problem.
Contract hire from Wincanton was the answer, and a very satisfactory deal was negotiated. (The fact that the Queen's cousin, Lord Harewood, is ENO's Managing Director may have helped!) Noel Staunton is delighted not only with the contract, but with the back-up that has followed it. He plans to take the trailers to the USA when ENO undertakes its American tour in 1984.
Scottish Opera's sponsorship came from within Scotland. Volvo Trucks came up with four sleeper-cabbed F7s. Local Volvo dealer Ailsa Trucks has also given very valuable back-up support.
The Welsh National Opera had a sponsorship deal with Renault from 1980 until earlier this year. The WNO still has the two TR 280s, but it is no longer supported. The absence of any major commercial vehicle manufacturer in Wales makes it impossible to follow Scottish Opera's example in getting support from a local manufacturer. The Princess of Wales has just become the company's Patron, and agreed that its new technical centre may be named after her. Technical Manager Alan Parr hopes that some fervent royalist will take the hint! Like the ENO he is hoping to take his trailers to the USA on its next tour there, and perhaps his tractors as well.
The youngest company, Opera North, founded in 1978, has been presented with a 16ton Leyland Scotstoun by Asda, the subsidiary of the Leedsbased Associated Dairies Group. This is used for transporting Opera North's own orchestra, the English Northern Philharmonia, Technical Manager Mike Roberts says that he is overjoyed to have this particular part of his transport operation taken care of. The company also runs nine 40ft trailers, for which traction is provided by another of the theatrical transport specialists, Radcliffe Transport.
Opera companies are subject to the same regulations as all other road transport operators, and most companies belong to the FTA. The rules on drivers' hours can be a problem, though not normally in the number of hours at the wheel. Drivers have to spend a lot of time simply waiting around between the start of the performance and its end, and spreadover limits are often approached. DTp Traffic Examiners pay visits from time to time, and the companies are careful to keep within the law. It would not help their regular battles with the Arts Council for bigger grants if they were to have trouble with the Licensing Authorities!
Many people think of opera as a deadly serious business. This is not so. It shares many attributes of "show-biz", and during the research for this article I heard many funny stories. One concerned an opera company driver stopped in a roadside check. The Traffic Examiner asked for his records. "I don't need records," said the driver. "Why not?" asked the TE. "Because I've got a whole (expletive deleted) orchestra back there!" came the reply.
Perhaps opera companies should give more publicity to their total dependence on road transport. They might attract more sponsorship in that area, while another slice of the general public might become aware that their cultural life, as well as almost every other aspect, depends on the lorry.