The House (TV series)
The House | |
---|---|
Genre | Documentary |
Directed by | Michael Waldman |
Narrated by | Jancis Robinson |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language | English |
No. of series | 1 |
No. of episodes | 6 |
Production | |
Executive producer | Edward Mirzoeff |
Producer | Andrew Bethell |
Production locations | Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Westminster, London, England, UK |
Production company | BBC Productions |
Original release | |
Network | BBC2 |
Release | 16 January 20 February 1996 | –
The House is a "
A docusoap precursor
Episodes
- (16 January) Star Struck: Denyce Graves makes her debut as Carmen
- (23 January) Horse Trading: The budgets for ballerinascause further problems.
- (30 January) Foot Fault: Thomas Allen receives an urgent call-up to appear in The Marriage of Figaro, as fellow baritone Jeffrey Black has lost his voice. Allen has not previously appeared in this production.
- (6 February) High Hopes: Protracted discussions about pay take place between management and trade unions; traditionalists and modernists battle over a revival of Harrison Birtwistle's Gawain.
- (13 February) Settling Scores: Nicholas Payne, Director of Opera, tries to balance business and art.
- (20 February) Winning Ticket: Established older dancers of The Royal Ballet have to be laid off in order to save money."[3][4][5]
Reception and aftermath
The series received a lot of publicity. Reactions in the press and elsewhere perhaps came as a surprise to the staff of the Opera House, who had co-operated with the film-makers. Indeed the senior management had seen it twice before transmission, without raising any complaints. The BBC's website noted that the documentary "disclosed the rifts and acrimony behind the scenes";[6] New York magazine commented "A six-part BBC documentary revealed the establishment to be as rife with power struggles and diva fits offstage as on."[7] Michael Kaiser, who became general director of the Opera House in 1998, remarked that "The House only confirmed the general belief that the Royal Opera House was, at best, incompetent, and, at worst, completely devoted to the needs of the rich."[8]
However, while Peter Popham in The Independent mentioned the "six-week display of dirty laundry courtesy of the BBC's documentary cameras", he later pointed out that "for all the moaning about unfairness that preceded the showing of The House, the documentary series has done Covent Garden enormous good in terms of public interest; requests to join the mailing list have poured in, and ticket sales are up. Whatever the backstage controversies the programme exposed, it also revealed the true glamour and excitement of an opera house's work, which has nothing to do with tedious arguments about elitism."[9]
Keith Cooper, the Opera House's public-relations director, seen dismissing staff in The House, reappeared on TV for a seventh episode in July 1998. The Royal Opera House refused to co-operate. "the cameras were denied entry to the building, and the new chairman,
The House
Awards
In 1996, the series won the Emmy Arts Documentary award at the
In 1997, it won the award for Best Factual Series in the
It also won the Royal Philharmonic Society 1996 Music Award for Radio, Television and Video.
Available recordings
The series has never been released on DVD, although it was released by Kultur on VHS tape in 1997. Nor, despite its many awards, was it never repeated on TV. The entire series is currently available digitally online.
References
Notes
- ^ Bruzzi, p.127
- ^ Bruzzi, p.126
- ^ IMDB listing
- ^ ""The House": Episode Guide, MSN.com". Archived from the original on 5 September 2014. Retrieved 21 October 2011.
- ^ Bruzzi, pp126-7
- ^ "UK Timeline: Royal Opera House's road to the brink" 30 June 1998
- ^ Vanessa Grigordias, "In Concert: Lord of the Dance", New York (magazine), 21 June 1997 Anthony Dowell, Royal Ballet's Artistic Director
- ^ Kaiser, pp. 102–3
- ^ Peter Popham, "Opinion: Singers who bring the house down", The Independent, 2 March 1996
- ^ "Only fools and horses", The Economist, 2 July 1998
- ^ Laura Battle, "Opera for all at Glyndebourne", Financial Times, 1 March 2010
- ^ IMDB awards listing
Sources
- Bruzzi, Stella. (2006) New Documentary, 2nd ed. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-38525-3
- Kaiser, Michael M. (2008) The Art of the Turnaround: Creating and Maintaining Healthy Arts Organizations. Lebanon, N.H: Brandeis University Press. ISBN 978-1-58465-735-4
External links
- The House at IMDb