Hall handled TV divas, now for the real thing

TONY HALL will sail into Covent Garden on the wave of sympathy that the British always exhibit for someone who jumps into a shark-infested sea wearing brand-new plastic waterwings.

Hall, who has spent his entire working life in BBC News, has never run a performing arts institution. The Royal Opera House (ROH) has chewed up five chief executives in as many years. Hall will enter its revolving doors with a refreshingly open mind and, no doubt, the hope that the doors will not revolve on him before he can enjoy the show. His American predecessor, Michael Kaiser, had pledged to stay for five years but was searching for a new job before his first year was out. Hall was appointed because no one of relevant experience and merit was prepared to take the job.

Sarah Billinghurst, of New York’s Metropolitan Opera, who was offered the job before Kaiser, was extremely rude. Brian McMaster renewed his Edinburgh Festival contract. John Tusa, of the Barbican Centre, made public his contempt. Raymond Gubbay, the commercial impresario, made a mischievous bid. Covent Garden had acquired a reputation for being unmanageable. Few wanted to blight their careers for its meagre rewards.

The shortlist consisted of two minnows from Strasbourg and Amsterdam and Hall, a man of silky political skills who had managed a team of 2,000 journalists through the Birt revolutions. He was, beyond doubt, the best prospect, but it took a further two months to reach an acceptable deal.

Sir Colin Southgate, the ROH chairman, confirmed last night that Hall had taken a substantial cut in his BBC salary of £240,000 a year. However, he has been allowed to stay at the BBC until the end of March, when he turns 50, entitling him to a generous BBC pension. Covent Garden, headless since Christmas, will be run in the meantime by John Seekings, its operations director, under the eye of Peter Hemmings, a board member, ex-chief of Scottish Opera and Los Angeles Opera.

So can Hall succeed where five outstandingly able managers – Jeremy Isaacs, Ginesta McIntosh, Mary Allen, Pelham Allen, Michael Kaiser – have departed? His BBC record was impressive, faltering only after Greg Dyke became director general and blocked his progress. At the BBC, Hall was seen as an astute operator who sailed with boardroom winds and was rarely seen in newsrooms. He was adroit at bolting doors after horses had fled, promising internal “reviews” after election predictions came unstuck.

He was good at deflecting political pressure and handled the broadcasting of Princess Diana’s heart-to-heart interview with tact and grit. He attracted neither strong loyalty nor enmity. His farewell note yesterday, thanking everyone for “your hard work and friendship”, was anodyne to a fault. A senior correspondent dubbed him “head prefect”, forever seeking to please the powers upstairs.

Whether these qualities can reinvigorate a demoralised opera house remains to be seen and time is not on Hall’s side. In the next few weeks he will have to master ballet and opera repertory and prominent personalities, remember the technical names for bits of machinery, and learn how to deal with artistic temperaments. Hall’s supporters say he managed BBC divas, but clashes in the opera house often centre on artistic integrity, and the new director will need both knowledge and sensitivity.

Sir Colin maintains that Hall’s role will be managerial, leaving artistic decisions to the incoming heads of the Royal Ballet and Royal Opera, Ross Stretton and Antonio Pappano, both strong personalities, who will demand radical change and primacy for their art-form. Stretton is due to arrive from Australian Ballet, where he recently culled 20 per cent. Pappano, still in Brussels, makes no secret of his dissatisfactions with the ROH. Storms loom.

Yet the principal impediment to Hall’s chances of saving the opera house is the board of public eminences which has appointed him. Its meddling and indecision felled four of the last five chiefs. The board is hampered by Chris Smith, Culture Secretary, who controls its membership and is seeking to replace its chairman. Pressure from above and beyond has resulted in permanent confusion.

What Covent Garden needs is not so much a new boss but a new constitution – either as a state-financed company run from the Department of Culture, or as a privatised opera house run by major donors. Hall’s best chance of staying afloat would be to go against his grain, defy his board and seek an external solution to the ROH crisis.