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On August Bank Holiday Saturday
arts lovers could choose between a very rare revival
of Bizet's one act opera Djamileh in the courtyard of
the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild at Cap Ferrat,
arguably the grandest house on the Riviera; being
blasted into oblivion with the world music pounded out
by the competing sound systems of the Notting Hill
Carnival; or assessing Das Rheingold, the opener of
Scottish Opera's new Ring cycle at the Edinburgh
International Festival.
All three events were dependent
on commercial sponsorship, and all displayed a
different face of sponsorship - its attraction for
corporate hospitality; its ability to cement customer
loyalty; and its use as good public relations, as
patronage, an example of business giving something
back to the community.
Bizet's Djamileh, a sensual tale
of slave girls and intrigue, is a great curiosity.
Damned at its premiere in 1872 because the beauty of
the lead was not matched by her voice, its ravishing
music fights against a static plot. But it is the
perfect chamber opera for a sumptuous belle époque
setting, and Les Azuriales Opera Festival, established
three years ago by an English couple, Sarah and Mark
Holford, was shrewd to choose it as its first
home-grown production, with the promising mezzo
Kathryn Turpin as the Scheherezade figure.
Djamileh will get a London
showcase at the Linbury studio at Covent Garden next
year, which should make Les Azuriales a serious player
in the increasingly competitive world of opera on warm
summer nights.
The event was sponsored by J.P.
Morgan to the tune of Pounds 15,000. It was the kind
of arts venture that the investment bank seeks out -
interesting, innovative, but also rather grand. It
invited along a handful of clients, and prospective
clients, linked to the world of e-commerce, in which
the bank is aiming to give corporate advice. It was
likely that they would appreciate the occasion if not
the opera. In the event, such an erotic work in such
an exotic setting made the perfect corporate evening,
generosity in a good cause, with plenty of opportunity
at dinner under the stars to strengthen relationships.
In contrast Western Union is
pumping Pounds 500,000 a year into the Notting Hill
carnival because it wants to identify closely with its
customers. The company is growing rapidly, mainly on
the back of the regular remittances that it arranges
for Afro-Caribbeans, Africans, Asians and East
Europeans working in the UK to send back home. All its
sponsorship, which approaches Pounds 1m a year,
concentrates on these communities, with the money
going towards improving the costumes, music, and
organisation of ethnic events.
Impassioned by its success with
the Notting Hill carnival, the largest street party in
Europe, Western Union is helping to develop comparable
celebrations everywhere from Hackney to Leeds. It also
organised that other World Cup, a football competition
between teams from 32 migrant groups, which saw
Pakistan beat Sierra Leone in the final played on
Hackney Marshes.
Few opera companies can embark
on Wagner's Ring without extra financial help: even in
their planned spartan form each of the four operas is
costing Scottish Opera around Pounds 300,000. Bank of
Scotland is committing almost Pounds 1m to the
endeavour over the next three years. National pride is
at stake: Scottish Opera needed to produce a Ring to
be taken seriously after recent difficulties, and the
bank wanted to show it stood by Scottish ambitions. It
helps that the operas will open at the Edinburgh
festival, another Scottish national institution which
the bank traditionally supports, in particular the
Queen's Hall concerts and the finale fireworks.
Bank of Scotland knows that, as
one of the biggest commercial companies in Scotland,
it must support the major arts companies, and it does.
Of course it is not just a case of being a good
corporate citizen: there are publicity and corporate
entertaining opportunities. And, as in so many
sponsorships, the chairman just happens to be an opera
buff. |