Caroline Felton, whose term as acting head was marked by strikes and walkouts backstage and controversy on it, has gone with immediate effect.

The news emerged when Ms Felton called a union officer directly to say that she was going. Gerry Morrissey, deputy general secretary of Bectu, the technicians’ union, said: “She said, ‘I won’t be coming back to ENO. My contract in relation to it has been brought to an end. I wanted you to hear it from me.’ She sounded upset.”

The union had been calling her office, trying to arrange a meeting at the conciliation service Acas to avert strikes.

A spokeswoman for ENO acknowledged that Ms Felton’s contract as acting executive director had come to an end, but said that her position was never going to be permanent. She said that, having completed an agreement with Equity over the singers — who have finally accepted a dozen voluntary redundancies rather than 20 compulsory ones — Ms Felton could now act in a part-time advisory capacity.

“She will not be working from the Coliseum,” she said, acknowledging that Ms Felton was scaling down her involvement even though ENO’s problems were far from over.

Insiders at ENO believe that the developments follow a power struggle after the arrival of Sean Doran as artistic director and chief executive, although he emphasised yesterday that Ms Felton had “worked tirelessly to provide solutions for all the challenges”.

Disputes with Bectu and the Musicians’ Union remain unresolved. Backstage staff have voted for strike action after being told that one in six faces redundancy. Productions that could be cancelled include Part II of Berlioz’s epic The Trojans.

Some 200 non-performing members of staff, including makers of costumes and wigs, box-office staff and engineers, argue that Ms Felton reneged on a no-redundancies deal made last September.

A finance director, Loretta Tomasi, has been appointed to handle the negotiations.

One insider said: “It was quite an achievement for Caroline Felton to have got all the trade unions opposing what ENO was trying to do.”

Ms Felton was a Coopers & Lybrand consultant who also worked at Welsh National Opera. Her appointment last year to handle finances by the chairman, Martin Smith, had apparently hastened the departure of Nicholas Payne as ENO’s general director.

John Allison, Editor of Opera magazine, said that she seemed to have been “out of her depth”. He said: “If this is all true, and if Sean Doran is acting as decisively as this, it’s very good news.”

Ms Felton could not be contacted.

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