 The new theatre was more expensive to run than the Old Vic; a larger orchestra and more singers were needed, and box office receipts were at first inadequate. In 1932 the Birmingham Post commented that the Vic-Wells opera performances did not reach the standards of the Vic-Wells Shakespeare productions. Baylis strove to improve operatic standards, while at the same time fending off attempts by Sir Thomas Beecham to absorb the opera company into a joint enterprise with Covent Garden, where he was in command. She was at first tempted by the financial security the proposal seemed to offer, but was convinced by her friends and advisers such as Edward J. Dent and Clive Carey that it was not in the interests of her regular audience. This view received strong support from the press; The Times wrote, "The Old Vic began by offering opera of some sort to people who hardly knew what the word meant ... under a wise, fostering guidance it has gradually worked upwards ... Any kind of amalgamation which made it the poor relation of the 'Grand' season would be disastrous."
