Cancellation of performances: the economic crisis does not spare opera houses

Mélina Facchin 9:45 a.m., February 23, 2023

Opera houses are not immune to the crisis.

After years of Covid-19 that have already weakened them and other problems that have accumulated, inflation is a bit of the straw that broke the camel's back.

According to the union Les Forces musicales, which represents around fifty opera houses and orchestras, 76% of its members are currently struggling to balance their budget.

Result: nearly 150 performances have already been canceled or suspended this year in France.

Example at the Opéra National du Rhin, in Strasbourg.

"I had to give up two performances out of a series of seven operas"

While the Opéra National du Rhin is barely recovering from the Covid crisis, is filling its halls again, this time it is its bills that are exploding.

"We are very impacted on the cost of transport in particular, since we do a lot of road", explains Alain Perroux, general manager of the National Operation of the Rhine.

The manufacture of sets is also increasingly expensive.

"Metal or wood, for example, have increased a lot in recent years," he confirms.

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So, reluctantly, Alain Perroux had to make radical decisions: "Out of a series of seven opera performances, I had to give up two of them given in Mulhouse in May, transforming one into a concert version and canceling the other," he sighs.

"I did it because it's a show that generates significant operating costs. By giving up these two performances, we save around 150,000 euros: it's considerable," he concludes.

"An unprecedented situation of accumulation of problems"

The Opéra National du Rhin is far from being the only one in this case.

The Rouen Opera, for example, decided to close for five weeks for budgetary reasons.

That of Montpellier estimates that it should "end the year with an announced deficit of one million euros".

But all these difficulties are not only due to the current inflation.

"We are facing an unprecedented situation of accumulation of problems", summarizes Frédéric Pérouchine, director of the Réunion des Opéras de France.

First, the end of the freeze on the index point for civil servants gave rise to an automatic 3.5% increase in wages: "In houses with a lot of employees such as opera houses, even a smaller increase in wages has a big impact on the overall budget," he explains.

Then, the Covid still leaves marks: canceled show tickets to be reimbursed, patrons to be found.

“As for subsidies, they are at best stagnant, at worst decreasing,” regrets Frédéric Pérouchine.

He therefore invites all cultural players to sit around the table, to think about solutions.

In the meantime, there will already be fewer curtain raisers in the next 2023-2024 season.