Paris (AFP)
After the dancers performing passages from "Swan Lake" in front of the Opéra Garnier on Christmas Day, musicians from the Paris Opera orchestra on strike against the pension reform organized a mini concert on the steps on Tuesday of the Bastille opera house, noted an AFP journalist.
"We always refuse to enter into a travesty of negotiations," said the strikers of the Paris Opera, denouncing the "passage in force of the government", in a message read before the start of this outdoor performance.
The musicians played some well-known pieces from the classical repertoire, such as the Damnation of Faust by Hector Berlioz or the Dance of the Knights, a famous extract from the Romeo and Juliet by Sergueï Prokofiev, before ending with an interpretation of the Marseillaise, in front of a few hundred of people who came to support them, who then sang protest songs.
The strikers of the Paris Opera, who have already organized several actions of this kind against the abolition of their specific pension scheme, reaffirmed on this occasion their opposition to the reform of the government.
"We refuse to be the gravediggers of our own pension scheme," they said in their message, continuing to demand the "withdrawal" from the reform.
The Opera and the Comédie-Française are the only cultural institutions affected by the government reform. The special regime of the Opera dates from 1698, under Louis XIV.
The strike affecting the Opera resulted in the cancellation of several shows and losses amounting to 8 million euros, according to figures communicated by the institution at the beginning of last week.
© 2019 AFP