Paris (AFP)
The Paris Opera, which is going through a serious crisis following a historic strike and the health context, must "transform in depth", said Tuesday the Minister of Culture Roselyne Bachelot.
"There is urgency", assured the minister during the transfer of power rue de Valois between Stéphane Lissner and Alexander Neef, the new general manager of the tercentenary institution which has accumulated 45 million euros in ticket office losses since December 2019.
"Today, it is necessary to rethink the entire operating model of the Opéra de Paris (...) I can measure the magnitude of the task that awaits you", said Ms. Bachelot, addressing Mr. Neef, whose assumption of duties was accelerated due to the context.
The minister, an opera enthusiast, entrusted two former heads of the institution "with a mission of reflection and proposal on the evolution of the model of the Paris Opera" to "help" Alexander Neef at the start of his mandate .
They are Georges-François Hirsch, former administrator of the Opera and Christophe Tardieu, former deputy director of the opera house, one of the most prestigious in the world.
They will have until the end of November to submit a "road map".
The ONP "will have to transform itself in depth", insisted Ms. Bachelot.
The Paris Opera has experienced a historic two-month strike by its staff against the reform of special regimes, but its history was already marked by numerous strikes.
Mr. Neef, who was director of the Canadian Opera Company, for his part indicated that he did not wish "to initiate a revolution but an evolution".
"We need the debate, the communication, the exchange", he added, questioned by the journalists if he feared a mobilization of the personnel against possible reforms.
The government had announced 432 million for live entertainment, stricken by the coronavirus epidemic.
Of the 200 million granted to the public sector, 120 will be mobilized for "national public operators" including the Opera, whose envelope has not yet been specified.
It "will at least partially fill the operating deficits for fiscal years 2020 and 2021", according to the minister.
A second mission was entrusted to Caroline Sonrier, director of the Lille Opera, to draw up an inventory of lyrical art in France, "where there are around forty theaters which make opera their main activity" .
© 2020 AFP