## Northern Opera Group
## Independent examiner's report to the trustees of Northern Opera Group
I report to the charity trustees on my examination of the accounts of the CIO for the year ended 31 March 2023.
## **Responsibilities and basis of report**
As the charity trustees of the CIO you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 ('the Act').
I report in respect of my examination of the CIO's accounts as carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act. In carrying out my examination I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.
## **Independent examiner's statement**
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:
1 accounting records were not kept in respect of the charity as required by section 130 of the Charities Act; 2 the accounts do not accord with those records.
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
Signed: …………………………………… Name: Simon Bostrom FCIE
25/5/2023
## **West Yorkshire Community Accountancy Service CIO**
Stringer House 34 Lupton Street Leeds LS10 2QW
## **Trustees’ Annual Report for the period**
## **From 1/4/22 Period start date To 31/3/23 Period end date**
## **Charity name: Northern Opera Group**
## **Charity registration number: 1167501**
## **Objectives and Activities**
||SORP reference||
|---|---|---|
|Summary of the purposes of
the charity as set out in its
governing document|Para 1.17|FOR THE PUBLIC BENEFIT OF THE
ADVANCEMENT OF THE ARTS, IN PARTICULAR
THOUGH NOT EXCLUSIVELY BY THE
PRODUCTION OF LIVE OPERA AND THEATRICAL
PERFORMANCES FOR THE ENJOYMENT OF
AUDIENCES AND PARTICIPANTS IN THE UNITED
KINGDOM|
|Summary of the main
activities in relation to those
purposes for the public
benefit, in particular, the
activities, projects or
services identified in the
accounts.|Para 1.17 and
1.19|We create a range of musical productions,
suitable for participants of varying ages,
abilities and experiences. We produce works
which are rarely performed, providing artists,
participants and audiences with new and
engaging experiences. We operate in the North
of England, with a national reach.|
|Statement confirming
whether the trustees have
had regard to the guidance
issued by the Charity
Commission on public
benefit|Para 1.18|The trustees confirm they have had regard
to the guidance issued by the Charity
Commission on public benefit|
## **Additional information (optional)** You may choose to include further statements where relevant about:
SORP reference Para 1.38 Policy on grant making Para 1.38 Policy on social investment including program related investment Para 1.38
Contribution made by volunteers Other
## **Achievements and Performance**
||SORP reference||
|---|---|---|
|Summary of the main
achievements of the charity,
identifying the difference the
charity’s work has made to
the circumstances of its
beneficiaries and any wider
benefits to society as a
whole.|Para 1.20|We have celebrated our busiest year to date,
with our critically acclaimed 2022 Leeds Opera
Festival, R&D process for our new Sherlock
Holmes opera, and our first performances in
Bradford with our community opera ‘Little Red
Riding Hood’.
Sherlock Holmes
In April 2022 we undertook an R&D week with
a public ‘work in progress’ performance for our
new ‘Sherlock Homes’ opera (adapted from the
novel ‘The Sign of Four’).
With music and libretto by Lliam Paterson, the
opera is being developed with mind to touring
to mid-scale theatres. This type of story (a fast-
paced, detective mystery) has rarely been
adapted for the opera stage, with this R&D
therefore enabled us to try out different ideas
– musically and dramatically – and gain
feedback from an audience.
We undertook this process at the East Riding
Theatre in Beverley, as it represents the type of
theatre and community we intend to reach
with our eventual tour.
The response from artists and our audience
was very positive, with emphasis on the clarity
of the story telling, and the need for more
innovative and high quality work in local
theatres.
We are now continuing to develop the opera
for premiere in 2024.
Leeds Opera Festival 2022
We were extremely pleased with the outcomes
of this year’s Festival. Feedback clearly
demonstrated that our output was the highest|
quality we’re produced thus far, and the Festival succeeded in reaching more, and more diverse, audiences and participants than ever before. The Festival’s theme was POWER, and included - A new production and English translation of Handel’s ‘Silla’ at Leeds School of Arts - A performance of Krenek’s ‘The Dictator’ at The Holbeck - A tour of a new opera, written by Christella Litras and Mike Kenny, called ‘Power’ - A programme of workshops and events, including a Climate Symposium and audio project with participants from Leeds Art Gallery. 62% of audiences travelled from outside LS postcodes which positively demonstrates the growing regional and national reach of the Festival. Feedback from audiences was extremely positive and in line with our ambitions: - 88% Very Good (highest option) and 12% Good on the quality - 72% Very Good and 28% Good value for money - 48% new audiences to Northern Opera Group, inc 10% of audiences for our headline production of ‘Silla’ were new opera audiences Audience feedback: **“Fantastic beautiful music excellent singers and the production will be a highlight of 2022 for me” “The direction was absolutely fantastic. It was revolutionary to see a production put together with such care and determination to be feminist and inclusive. You could see how the cast cared for each other - the energy was supportive and engaging” “I attended Alcina at Glyndebourne but enjoyed Silla much more as the plot was conveyed much more clearly and there was no weak link; singers, musicians and production” “A triumph. Staging, singing, music all of the highest order. It was a great idea to take this**
**under performed masterpiece and re-imagine it for the 21st century” “A reimagining with a clear vision and precise execution. Bold, feminist, exciting, thoughtful. Each performance had clear intentions and sharp, nuanced characterisation”** We worked with 25 young people from New Wortley Community Centre to co-create our pop-up opera. This is the first time that we’ve worked with young people in this way, and it was a very positive experience for both the young people involved and our artists leading the sessions. “The children really engaged well. We’d love to do something similar again in the future” (Gemma Bain, Centre Manager) The pop-up opera they co-created was performed in venues in eight different communities across the city – including New Wortley, Colton, Morley and Seacroft. Over 1,000 people engaged with the performances, including an estimated 25% of audiences under the age of 12. We supported local creatives by hosting a Climate Symposium, with 68 artists and companies joining us to learn about sustainable practice. We also extended opportunities for local students to join the Festival on placements in acting, assistant directing, and assistant stage managing. This was a really positive development, and enabled 7 local students with no previous experience of opera to learn from our creative teams. **“The company has been so welcoming to me as a new face, I feel so inspired by every creative in the room. I never thought about working in opera before because I honestly didn’t think it was something accessible to me. It’s been so eye-opening to work with like-minded individuals on an art form that’s new to me, finding so much creativity and inclusion in a place I never thought to look. Being in the room with such talent and being able to offer what I can to a professional space is a dream”** (assistant director placement student) This Festival saw the first year of our new partnership with Leeds School of Arts (at Leeds Beckett University). This partnership enables to
use their outstanding rehearsal and performance facilities at their new £80m performing arts centre in Leeds city centre, store our props and costumes for use by their students, and provide placement, internship and career development opportunities to students. Little Red Riding Hood Our annual community opera was a new production of Cesar Cui’s ‘Little Red Riding Hood’. Rehearsals took place in Bradford for the first time, enabling us to welcome new participants from the area. Performances took place at Victoria Hall in Saltaire, Bradford, as well as Morley Town Hall in Morley, Leeds. Community participants were able to perform alongside a professional principal cast, and were supported by a professional production team. Audience feedback: **Thanks so much, this was a wonderful performance! My kids and I thoroughly enjoyed it Very enjoyable, perfectly pitched for younger audience Our children loved it and so did we! They loved that it wasn't just watching and they sat and coloured and their pictures were used on stage and the wolf jumped down. They were mesmerised It was just fabulous. I felt it was incredibly professional, fun and a wonderful way to start the festive season with my 2 daughters who are 6 and 9. We all absolutely loved it. Loved the interaction with the children. Felt the performance was excellent and made opera available to all (even though I don't usually listen to opera) We had such a lovely time my little girl was entertained from start to finish Thank you so much for a fabulous production and for coming to Saltaire! It's very local to me which is important as I have long covid and would not have been able to attend in Leeds (where such performances usually are).**
**Please offer more productions here, for grown ups and children Length of performance was just right. Took my grandchildren to give them an introduction to opera and they enjoyed it. A lovely family day out. Thank you!** 85% of booking parties included at least one under-12 year old, and 63% of audiences were attending their first opera. Future Plans We are currently preparing for the 2023 Leeds Opera Festival, which is themed around opera from Latin America. It will include the UK premiere of ‘Frida’ by Robert Rodriguez, and a new production of Astor Piazzolla’s tango opera, ‘Maria de Buenos Aires’. We will be working with schools to deliver workshops on Latin folk stories and music, with the contributions of young people helping to create a new pop-up opera for the Festival, written by Jose Puello and Zodwa Nyoni. The Festival will include our most extensive events programme to date, including music recitals, free dance workshops, and another collaboration with Leeds Art Gallery. We are also planning for a revival tour of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’, a new community production for December 2023, and planning for the 2024 Leeds Opera Festival.
## **Additional information (optional)** You may choose to include further statements where relevant about:
||||
|---|---|---|
|Achievements against
objectives set|Para 1.41||
|Performance of fundraising
activities against objectives
set|Para 1.41||
|Investment performance
against objectives|Para 1.41||
Other
## **Financial Review**
|Review of the charity’s
financial position at the end
of the period|Para 1.21|With minimal overheads and liabilities,
Northern Opera Group is in a stable
financial position moving forward. Whilst
income has gone down this financial year
compared to last, this is due to where
grants from Arts Council England have
fallen either side of the financial year end.
As stated in this year’s accounts, we have
a grant of £60,000 to be paid in the early
months of the 23/24 financial year, as well
as over £40,000 of Theatre Tax Relief,
placing the charity in a very healthy
position.
At the time of signing these accounts the
charity has been impacted by the global
Covid-19 virus. The trustees have
reassessed the charity’s ability to continue
for at least 12 months from the date that
the accounts are approved and conclude
that no material uncertainties exist that cast
significant doubt on the charity's ability to
meet its liabilities as they fall due.|
|---|---|---|
|Statement explaining the
policy for holding reserves
stating why they are held|Para 1.22|As we have minimal overheads the
company doesn’t have a formal reserves
policy. Management accounts are created
for each Board meeting for Trustees to
monitor|
|Amount of reserves held|Para 1.22|£365|
|Reasons for holding zero
reserves|Para 1.22|n/a|
|Details of fund materially in
deficit|Para 1.24|n/a|
|Explanation of any
uncertainties about the
charity continuing as a going
concern|Para 1.23|n/a|
## **Additional information (optional)**
## You may choose to include further statements where relevant about:
|The charity’s principal
sources of funds (including
any fundraising)|Para 1.47|Our principal sources of funding are Arts
Council England (project grants), Theatre
Tax Relief, and Trust and Foundation
grants|
|---|---|---|
|Investment policy and
objectives including any
social investment policy
adopted|Para 1.46||
|A description of the principal
risks facing the charity|Para 1.46||
Other
## **Structure, Governance and Management**
|Description of charity’s
trusts:|||
|---|---|---|
|Type of governing document
(trust deed, royal charter)|Para 1.25|**Constitution**|
|How is the charity
constituted?
(e.g unincorporated
association, CIO)|Para 1.25|**CIO**|
|Trustee selection methods
including details of any
constitutional provisions e.g.
election to post or name of
any person or body entitled
to appoint one or more
trustees|Para 1.25|Trustees are selected based on
recommendation and research|
## **Additional information (optional)** You may choose to include further statements where relevant about:
Policies and procedures adopted for the induction Para 1.51 and training of trustees The charity’s organisational structure and any wider Para 1.51 network with which the charity works Relationship with any related Para 1.51 parties Other
## **Reference and Administrative details**
|Charity name|Northern Opera Group|
|---|---|
|Other name the charity uses||
|Registered charity number|1167501|
|Charity’s principal address|c/o Northern Ballet
2 St Cecilia Street
Quarry Hill
Leeds
LS2 7PA|
|||
## **Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity**
|1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20|**Trustee name**|**Office (if any)**|**Dates acted if not for whole**
**year**|**Name of person (or body) entitled**
**to appoint trustee (if any)**|
|---|---|---|---|---|
||Mark Skipper|Chair|||
||SallyStephens||1/4/22 - 24/1/23||
||Sarah Vyse||||
||Rachel Bamforth||1/4/22 - 24/1/23||
||EmilySimpson||||
||Charlotte
Armstrong||1/4/22 - 24/1/23||
||John Savournin||1/3/23 -||
||George Johnson-
Leigh||1/3/23 -||
||Alan Williams||1/3/23 -||
||||||
||||||
||||||
||||||
||||||
||||||
||||||
||||||
||||||
||||||
## – Corporate trustees names of the directors at the date the report was approved
**Director name**
Name of trustees holding title to property belonging to the charity
**Trustee name Dates acted if not for whole year**
## **Funds held as custodian trustees on behalf of others**
Description of the assets held in this capacity
Name and objects of the charity on whose behalf the assets are held and how this falls within the custodian charity’s objects Details of arrangements for safe custody and segregation of such assets from the charity’s own assets
## **Additional information (optional)**
## **Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)**
|**Type of**|**Name**|**Address**|
|---|---|---|
|**adviser**|||
**Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information)**
## **Exemptions from disclosure**
Reason for non-disclosure of key personnel details
## **Other optional information**
## **Declarations**
**The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.**
**Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees**
|**Signature(s)**
**Full name(s)**
**Position (eg Secretary,**
**Chair, etc)**
**Date**|||
|---|---|---|
||Sarah Vyse||
||
Trustee||
||25/5/23||
||25/5/23||
**Northern Opera Group**
**1167501**
## **Receipts and payments accounts**
## **CC16a**
|**For the period**
**from**|01/04/2022|**To**|31/03/2023|
|---|---|---|---|
## **Section A Receipts and payments**
|**A1 Receipts**|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**|**Restricted funds**
**to the nearest £**|**Restricted funds**
**to the nearest £**|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**|**Total funds**
**to the nearest £**|**Total funds**
**to the nearest £**|**Last year**
**to the nearest £**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Government|||**7,860**||||**7,860**||**54,996**|
|Trust and Foundation|**2,000**||**51,250**||||**53,250**||**65,700**|
|Donation|**1,710**||**3,370**||||**5,080**||**886**|
|Box office|||**6,055**||||**6,055**||**4,953**|
|Commissions||||||||||
|Misc|||||||||**1,195**|
|Theatre Tax Relief|**12,036**||||||**12,036**||**10,987**|
|**_Sub total_**_(Gross income for AR)_|**15,746**||**68,535**||**-**||**84,281**||**138,717**|
|||||||||||
|**A2 Asset and investment sales,**
**(see table).**||||||||||
||**-**|||||||||
||**-**||||||||**-**|
|**_Sub total_**|**-**||||||||**-**|
|**_Total receipts_**
**A3 Payments**||||||||||
||||||||||**138,717**|
|||||||||||
|
Operacast|**100**||||||**100**||**200**|
|Artist fee|||**92,318**||||**92,318**||**64,236**|
|Marketing|||**3,081**||||**3,081**||**5,053**|
|Accommodation / travel|||**11,501**||||**11,501**||**4,116**|
|Venue hire|||**10,424**||||**10,424**||**7,289**|
|Production|**227**||**14,108**||||**14,335**||**11,066**|
|Administration|**90**||||||**90**||**600**|
|Overheads|**2,068**||||||**2,068**||**1,398**|
|Equipment|||||||||**51**|
|Governance|**240**||||||**240**||**288**|
|Volunteer expenses|||**29**||||**29**||**142**|
|Training||||||||||
|Vendor fees|**1**||**124**||||**125**||**356**|
|Other|**127**||**100**||||**227**||**176**|
|**_Sub total_ **|**2,853**||**131,685**||**-**||**134,538**||**94,971**|
|||||||||||
|**A4 Asset and investment**
**purchases, (see table)**||||||||||
||**-**|||||||||
||**-**|||||||||
|**_Sub total_ **|**-**||||||||**-**|
|**_Total payments_**
**_Net of receipts/(payments)_**
**A5 Transfers between funds**
**A6 Cash funds last year end**
**_Cash funds this year end_**||||||||||
||||||||||**94,971**|
|||||||||||
||**12,893**||||||||**47,746**|
||**- 12,827**||||||||**-**|
||**299**||||||||**18,900**|
||**365**||||||||**66,646**|
## **Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period**
|CCXX R1 accounts (SS)
**Categories**
**B1 Cash funds**|~~1~~
Current account
Paypal
**Details**|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**to nearest £**
**365**
**-**|**Restricted funds**
**to nearest £**
**16,024**
**-**|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**|
|---|---|---|---|---|
||Current account|**365**|**16,024**|**-**|
||~~1~~
Paypal|**-**|**-**|~~25/05/2023~~
**-**|
CCXX R1 accounts (SS)
|||||**-**|||||**-**||**-**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||**_Total cash funds_**||**365**|||||**16,024**|||**-**|
||(agree balances with receipts and payments account(s))||OK|||||OK|||OK|
||||**Unrestricted**|||||**Restricted funds**|||**Endowment**|
||||**funds**||||||||**funds**|
||**Details**||**to nearest £**|||||**to nearest £**|||**to nearest £**|
|**B2 Other monetary assets**|Tax reclaimable through Theatre Tax Relief||**45,552**||||||**-**||**-**|
||Arts Council England|||**-**||||**60,000**|||**-**|
||Leeds City Council|||**-**||||**5,000**|||**-**|
|||||**-**|||||**-**||**-**|
|||||**-**|||||**-**||**-**|
|||||**-**|||||**-**||**-**|
||**Details**||**Fund to which asset**
**belongs**|||||**Cost (optional)**|||**Current value**
**(optional)**|
|**B3 Investment assets**|||||||||**-**||**-**|
||||||||||**-**||**-**|
||||||||||**-**||**-**|
||||||||||**-**||**-**|
||||||||||**-**||**-**|
||**Details**||**Fund to which asset**
**belongs**|||||**Cost (optional)**|||**Current value**
**(optional)**|
|**B4 Assets retained for the**|||||||||**-**||**-**|
|**charity’s own use**|||||||||**-**||**-**|
||||||||||**-**||**-**|
||||||||||**-**||**-**|
||||||||||**-**||**-**|
||||||||||**-**||**-**|
||||||||||**-**||**-**|
||||||||||**-**||**-**|
||||||||||**-**||**-**|
||||**Fund to which**|||||**Amount due**|||**When due**|
||**Details**||**liability relates**|||||**(optional)**|||**(optional)**|
|**B5 Liabilities**|WYCAS - Independent Examination||Unrestricted|||||**480**||||
||||||||||**-**|||
||||||||||**-**|||
||||||||||**-**|||
||||||||||**-**|||
|Signed by one or two trustees on
behalf of all the trustees|Signature||Print|||Name|||||Date of approval|
||||Sarah||||Vyse||||25/05/2023|
|||||||||||||
CCXX R2 accounts (SS)
25/05/2023
2