Opera house sacks all its singers
mainThe Silesian Opera in the eastern Czech town of Opava has been ordered to get rid of its staff soloists. The town council says they are too expensive and should be hired back on a piecework basis, opera by opera.
The small company regularly receives international reviews.
Here’s a TV news report (in Czech).
Meanwhile, in California,…
https://slippedisc.com/2020/01/opera-is-cancelled-due-to-new-california-law/
Such a tragedy. The country that was home to such great opera composers as Smetana, Dvorak, Janacek, and Martinu should not allow this to happen, and their artists should be protesting for more government support!
I think it’s entirely appropriate they ALL get jobs singing elsewhere and are not “available” for future events.
Ostrava, not Opava…
No, it’s effing Opava. We do know the difference.
https://seenandheard-international.com/2020/01/silesian-theater-opava-brings-a-freudian-freischutz-to-pragues-opera-2020-festival/
Apologies, I stand corrected.
What has the world come to when one can’t distinguish glorious Opava from Ostrava! Vey
I trust Norman to know the difference – I’m going to stay on his good side!
ehem, Neil B., the news outlet covering this in Czech might have been from Ostrava, but this is definitely regarding the opera in Opava. Norman got it right, and you can trust me since I live here and have conducted in both cities.
All hail the almighty gig-economy.
From the link above (which explains the action): “The theater reached them after it had to gradually increase the salaries of its employees and received from its founder, the Opava municipality, 5 million CZK less than it needs this year.”
Arts cuts are a world-wide phenomenon and a speciality of right wing governments. Such things encourage people to think and that’s bad news for everyone.
Has nothing to do with the story but just a nostalgic detail: the theater in Opava (Troppau) was built by the Austrian architects Fellner&Helmer who built dozens of opera houses throughout the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy, today Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Croatia and Ukraine in the latter part of the 19th century.
Opawa (proper) spelling is in Silesia (Poland) Magdalena