Royal Opera cancels auditions, leaves musicians stranded

As we reported yesterday, the Royal Opera in Copenhagen has announced savage cuts to help meet the cost of maintaining a swanky new building.

One immediate consequence: it has summarily cancelled auditions for orchestra vacancies. An American friend, who spent an unrecoverable $3,500 on flights and hotels, received the following brutal letter from Copenhagen:

Kære cellokonkurrence deltager. På baggrund af Kulturministeriets sparekrav til Det Kongelige Teater, som desværre også rammer Det Kongelige Kapel med en nedskæring på 7 mill. dkr, ser vi os med beklagelse nødsaget til, at aflyse den planlagte konkurrence om stillingen som solocellist. Vi beklager det besvær det må give, og håber på forståelse for en situation, som det ikke var muligt at forudse.

Med venlig hilsen,

Sven Müller, Operachef Det Kongelige Teater og Kapel

Dear cello contestant. Based on the Ministry of Cultures reduction of grants to the Royal Theatre, which unfortunately also affects the Royal Chapel with a reduction of 7 million dkr., we see ourselves reluctantly compelled to cancel the planned competition for the position as Principal Cellist. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you, and hope for your understanding for a situation that we couldn’t predict.

Sincerely,

Sven Müller, Artistic Director,  Royal Danish Opera.

Shocking? Disgraceful? Unprofessional? The least the Danes can do is refund the expenses of musicians who have been caught out by their peremptory cancellation.

Meantime, be warned: If you’re booked in Denmark, get your expenses paid in advance.