Paris (AFP)

A historic strike, a closure due to an epidemic, then for work: struck by an unprecedented succession of crises, the Paris Opera is at a turning point, heralding reforms that promise to be very delicate.

After celebrating its 350th anniversary in 2019, the largest opera house in Europe and one of the most prestigious in the world is preparing for a new era, after the announcement of the early departure of its director Stéphane Lissner, who will be replaced by Alexander Neef in January 2021.

The outgoing director, who replaced Paris on the lyric map in the world by inviting opera stars and the greatest directors, evoked a debt of more than 40 million euros, estimating that the Paris Opera was "on his knees".

- "Nothing will be like it was before" -

"It is a call for help to the state," he said in the broadcast "C to you" on France 5 Thursday evening.

2020 is an "annus horribilis" for the Opera with the closing of its halls in December and January due to a historic strike by its staff against the government pension reform.

Barely the reopening started that the Covid-19 pandemic struck, leading to the closure of the Opera - like all theaters in France - since mid-March.

Garnier, architectural gem of Paris, will remain a ghost palace until December 31, while the Opéra Bastille will only reopen on November 24.

Since December 5, nearly a hundred operas and ballets have been canceled; it will be the same for the first part of the 2020-2021 season which announced ambitious projects like the Ring of Wagner, a vast tetralogy which seems doomed, or even "7 deaths of Maria Callas", by Marina Abramovic.

Cancellations which should further deepen the debt of the house which will probably have "more working capital by the end of 2020", according to Mr. Lissner.

An economic emergency which "will require drastic and immediate decision-making, which will have a significant social impact".

It echoed a statement from the Ministry of Culture on Thursday which appeared to herald major changes on the horizon.

- "Revisiting the economic model" -

"At the end of a year of unprecedented crisis", Minister Franck Riester entrusted the successor of Mr. Lissner, the German Alexander Neef, current general manager of the Canadian Opera Company of Toronto, the mission to propose as of the fall 2020 guidelines "to maintain excellence and influence" of the house.

A sign of the arduous mission that awaits Mr. Neef, the minister instructed him to revisit the "economic, social and organizational model" of the Opera in order to "ensure the conditions for a balanced operation".

Clearly: a new recovery plan for the most subsidized scene in France (95 million euros from the State for a budget of 220 million).

For 10 years, public subsidies have been falling and the costs still high. The institution is now funded 40% by the State and 60% by own resources.

The history of the Opera has always been tumultuous and the recent decades punctuated by strikes. But there are fears that continued cuts in subsidies will mark a turning point.

"After reading the press release from the Minister of Culture, I hope that this does not bode well for a kind of rampant privatization of the Paris Opera," said Georges-François Hirsch, former director of the institution.

Alexander Neef, former casting director of the Paris Opera from 2004 to 2008, is familiar with both the subsidized French system and the North American system based on private funds.

He was appointed last year after a saga of several months, and following a long interview with President Emmanuel Macron.

© 2020 AFP