It’s easy to forget what a mess of an art form opera once was. For its first 100 years it had no name, it had no fixed address, it didn’t really know who it was or what it was doing. You’d find it at schools, at weddings, at political functions.
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An earlier version of this article said that the 'unionised' ENO chorus and orchestra would not 'give way' to the Philip Glass Ensemble 'even for a week'. We accept that the decision not to host the Philip Glass Ensemble was made by the ENO management team, not the ENO orchestra, chorus or trade unions. We are happy to clarify the matter.
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