Major US opera sacks two dozen staff

Buried in an upbeat blog by Seattle Opera boss Christina Scheppelmann is this sad nugget:

…. In September, we made the difficult decision to eliminate several positions—while many other staff members remained furloughed. We were hopeful that health conditions would improve and it would be safe to return to the theater in the first half of 2021. Now, we see this is not the case. Live performances will likely not resume until next season. Because we must be a much leaner operation for the near future, we do not see a path to rehire the staff members who are currently furloughed. Nor do we believe we can keep them on furlough for more than a year. Thus, we will be laying off the remaining 24 people on furlough. This is a very hard and emotional decision for Seattle Opera. The global pandemic continues to be the biggest challenge the performing arts sector has ever seen, and what we are discussing today would have been unimaginable when shutdowns began last March.

Included in our staffing plans for the near future is the reorganization of the Costume Shop and Hair and Makeup Studio into one department. …

Cut, slash, burn.