Cellos refuse to play in ‘unsafe’ opera pit
mainMore grim news from the Colon, in Buenos Aires.
On Friday, bits of plaster from ceiling fell into the orchestra pit. Only five cellists were persuaded to risk their lives in that night’s performance.
The musicians are holding daily demonstrations against bad personnel management and bad maintenance of the old building.
Here’s the latest demo:
Great acoustics – bad maintenance.
They are totally justified in not playing. This is the same theater where a young stage hand fell to his death last year because of hazardous conditions backstage. The Colon has a heinous record of unsafe conditions for their workers and musicians.
Here’s a video, with English subtitles, of the Colon’s manager trying to dismiss the importance of the death of the young worker who died last year as a result of poor safety conditions at the theater –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HzC0zRC0-0
I don’t get it. Cellos refused to play while at the same time being “persuaded to risk their lives” in the pit? So which is it?