Opera house sacks all its singers

Opera house sacks all its singers

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norman lebrecht

February 06, 2020

The 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).

Comments

  • Paul says:

    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!

    • Kibbyken says:

      I think it’s entirely appropriate they ALL get jobs singing elsewhere and are not “available” for future events.

  • Neil B. says:

    Ostrava, not Opava…

  • ThrownOutOfTheKremlinForSinging says:

    All hail the almighty gig-economy.

  • fflambeau says:

    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.

  • Hans Winkler says:

    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.

  • Magdalena Golczewski says:

    Opawa (proper) spelling is in Silesia (Poland) Magdalena

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