Allen forced to quit in new Royal Opera melodrama

MARY ALLEN resigned last night as chief executive of the Royal Opera House, writes David Lister. Her departure brings to a climax an extraordinary year in which the ROH has been savaged by a House of Commons select committee, seen its chairman and board resign and some of its most senior staff sacked.

Mrs Allen was strongly criticised by the national heritage select committee last year over the manner of her move from secretary-general of the Arts Council, which funds the ROH, to take over as chief executive of the house. The post was not advertised and the Arts Council not consulted. Gerald Kaufman, the committee chairman, repeatedly called for her resignation. But though the ROH chairman, Lord Chadlington, resigned in the wake of the report, Mrs Allen refused to go and said she would serve under the new chairman, Sir Colin Southgate, who is also the chairman of EMI.

But yesterday at a heated board meeting Mrs Allen was told by Sir Colin and the board that they wanted an artistic director, not an administrator, to run the House. Insiders say she argued strongly that it needed "a strong arts administrator to cope with the financial difficulties" at the ROH.

But the board rejected her arguments. They were said to be shaken by the recent defection of the Royal Opera Company's director, Nicholas Payne, to the English National Opera, and felt the House needed artistic credibility. Mrs Allen was said last night to be extremely upset. An ROH statement said only that there was "a growing difference of views over the future plans for the organisation".

In truth, Mrs Allen's position has looked unstable for some time following the select committee's report, criticism from the Arts Council (her chairman there, Lord Gowrie, said he had "bonded too closely" with her in explaining why he did not block her move when he appeared before the select committee) and the failure of Chris Smith, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, to back her publicly.

Mrs Allen is now one of the most controversial figures in the arts. Before entering arts administration she was an actress. The public criticism of her could make it difficult for her to hold a senior position in a national arts organisation, although she has always maintained that the criticism was unfair, saying: "If there were mistakes, they were honest mistakes." The Royal Opera House is currently the subject of an inquiry of opera provision in London being headed by Sir Richard Eyre.

Mrs Allen's resignation follows the experience of her husband Nigel Pantling, who resigned as head of corporate finance from Hambros last year following revelations about its behaviour in trying to buy the Co-operative Wholesale Society.

Funding shake-up, page 3