Shadowy shafted figures lurk in the London Coliseum

There must be more to the resignation of the ENO's general director than they're letting on

Let us consider the chairmen of two of our national arts companies. It's not easy to do, as we know so little about them or their philosophies. The only thing we do know is that they wield a lot of power, and can, with the acquiescence of their boards, hire and fire. Lord Alexander of Weedon is about to hire someone to shape the future of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Martin Smith, a banker, and chairman of the English National Opera, has just allowed the highly respected Nicholas Payne to quit his post as ENO's general director.

What do we know about these two men? Not a lot. Most of us don't know what they look like. They are never profiled in newspapers. They never feel the need to explain themselves to the ticket buyers of the organisations they chair. We had a rare insight into the philosophy of Mr Smith when he put out a terse statement after Nicholas Payne's shock departure. He was appointing an acting managing director, he said, "responsible for the overall management of ENO as a business". So there we are. The opera house, in which I had seen so many innovative productions, was a business. But at least Mr Smith could not be blamed for Mr Payne's departure. The ENO's own press statement said he had decided to "stand down".

And so I was almost prepared to believe, until I saw a rather strange quote in a newspaper from Peter Jonas, the general director of ENO during its "powerhouse" years of the Eighties. Mr Jonas said: "It sounds like a load of hogwash to me. It sounds like they've shafted him." I was a little surprised to see a man I remember for his elegance of discourse putting things so forthrightly, but even more surprised to see that Mr Jonas clearly did not believe the ENO press statement which said that Mr Payne had resigned. Few people know the workings of the ENO as well as Mr Jonas, who obviously still has many contacts there. If Mr Jonas maintains that Mr Payne has been "shafted", then I think it is incumbent upon Mr Smith to go public on whether he has or not.

ENO briefings to the press, faithfully repeated in some newspapers, have it that Mr Smith wanted to split Mr Payne's job, have him concentrate on the artistic side, and bring in someone else to run the business side. Mr Payne, so the story went, saw this as a demotion and decided to leave.

I'm beginning to wonder how true this much-leaked scenario was. My friends at the London Coliseum whisper rather more worrying things; that Mr Smith has strong ideas about wanting a safer repertoire, that he wants a prime new location at the top of the ENO with wonderful views to be reserved for corporate entertaining; that he wants, well, a lot of changes that Mr Payne would not countenance.

Of course, I may be seeing conspiracies where none exists. But then I hear Peter Jonas, like an operatic warrior, singing in an assured baritone "it sounds like he has been shafted", while a wild-eyed chorus around him echoes "shafted, shafted, shafted". What is the truth? Tell us, Mr Smith.

Lord Alexander, meanwhile, is about to oversee the appointment of a new artistic director. I would love to be present at the interviews, when Lord Alexander might explain where we stand on the on-off abolition of the Stratford theatre, and the poor houses in London at theatres where even many RSC fans don't realise the company is playing. The redoubtable west end producer Thelma Holt, who has worked at both the RSC and National Theatre, believes the company should retreat to Stratford, which is an internationally known theatre venue after all. She adds that Lord Alexander should defer a decision on artistic director – as one has to be appointed so quickly no prominent outsider has a realistic chance of being released – and appoint Sir Richard Eyre as a temporary chief executive.

What might be even better would be if Sir Richard and Ms Holt, two of the most effective and knowledgeable people in theatre, worked in tandem. But I suspect an insider, Michael Boyd or Greg Doran, will be chosen. That's fine, as long as Lord Alexander goes public on his thoughts for the future direction of the company.

*The record producer Mike Batt has, as we know, been threatened with litigation over the use of a silent track on the new album by his protégés, the Planets. The publishers of the late composer John Cage claim a breach of copyright over Cage's own silent track. There have actually been other silences; John Lennon used a silent track on a solo album; an entire record, The Wit and Wisdom of Ronald Reagan, was silent.

This week Batt got the Planets to perform the silent track at a London hotel. With my music critic's hat on, I found it a fascinating recital, with echoes of Reagan, and haunting references to Lennon's own signature piece. A frisson went through me in the climactic section, when I spotted an uncanny resemblance to the seminal Cage composition. Admittedly, some of the solo playing seemed a little hesitant to this classical ear, but might improve with extra rehearsal time.

d.lister@independent.co.uk