Barbara Hannigan is hit by musicians’ strike
Orchestras
norman lebrecht
April 09, 2023
The conductor reports from Paris:
‘After an intense and magical week of rehearsals, and after this morning’s dress rehearsal with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and the Chœur de Radio France, a very small number of integral musicians from the orchestra announced their intention to strike this evening, leaving us without the possibility to replace them or to give our concert.
‘All the music was very very precious to me, but most important was the opportunity to give the world premiere of Golfam Khayam’s beautiful new work: “Je ne suis pas une fable a conter”, for soprano and orchestra, a piece which carries its own message. While we have no chance to deliver this music tonight, the opportunity to meet and work with Golfam Khayam is a great gift, and I look forward so much to giving the piece its world premiere with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, in June. It is absolutely heartbreaking for me, and I know, for so many of my colleagues, that we suddenly cannot perform tonight.’
photo: Christophe Abramowitz
UPDATE: Barbara Hannigan tells Slippedisc.com:
As you can imagine, it was heartbreaking, and a shock to most of the musicians (other than the small few who decided to strike because of the ongoing pension reforms in France) to find that our concert would have to be cancelled, and to realize that these few musicians probably knew from the beginning of our rehearsals that week, with more than 150 singers and instrumentalists, that they would cause the cancellation of the concert after the dress rehearsal.
The composer I mentioned in my post, is the female Iranian composer Golfam Khayam, who Radio France and I had co-commissioned for the piece, and Ms Khayam had travelled from Tehran to be with us for the rehearsals (and premiere of her new work).
At a time like this, I can only reflect on how important it is to consider our use of what power we have, collectively and individually, what messages we want (and choose) to send.
Golfam Khayam posted this on my FB public page today:
I really wished the very few striking musicians would have understood the urgency of this very event, which was ALL ABOUT social injustice… Therefore in fact it was a platform that could have been amplifying their voices in such an effective way. This was a brutal act of very very few people against their own community which stabbed their own colleagues from behind rather than bringing any other message: Doing all the rehearsals and the general rehearsal and then Strike just 2 hours before a concert, it is nothing but mocking their own family community without any moral support for their own orchestra. Indeed it is a shame that a concert with such a symbolic program that each piece rarely is being performed, with intense magical and powerful presence of Barbara Hannigan, also a guest composer coming all the way from Iran ( I had to travel with a 3 months old baby) , specially in this chapter of our history is unfortunately not understandable and finally a disrespect to their own community and humanity. This event was not an entertainment , it was a concert for lost human souls, and finally it was indeed to amplify silent human voices who seek “social justice” in the darkest times.
Interesting choice by the musicians. Curious to see if this type of thing becomes the norm
Selfish behaviour, disconnected from reality, is the norm in France.
Typical entitled, selfish behaviour perpetrated by spoilt little kids. The same thing happened in Toulouse recently with the final performance of Tristan und Isolde.
Would YOU have gone to see this piece performed had this strike not happened? Your words sounds to me like regressive gibberish
Yes I would, so what’s your point? Talk about gibberish…
Admittedly I’m not familiar with French labor law, but how does a small group of musicians go on strike? Wouldn’t a strike involve a vote of the entire orchestra?
No, it’s an individual choice concerning pension reform. It just needs a handful of ‘key’ players, such as solo winds to sabotage an entire performance, which is why they do it. Makes them feel important, the little treasures. as I said, it happened in Toulouse recently, too. At least eighty percent of the band was there, but if there’s no first oboe or clarinet, what are you going to do?
Right. Over pension reform. I don’t oppose the protests in general, and as someone who might retire at 60 I can’t fault folks not wanting to work until 64. But it’s incredibly selfish and unprofessional to sabotage something this way. If you start the rehearsals, you do the gig.
I sure my one of my clarinet idols, Nicolas Baldeyrou – the orchestra’s principal – wasn’t part of this.
Funny how overpaid Ms. Hannigan speaks about the “consideration of the power we use” in this context, without ever mentioning any solidarity with these (or any other) workers fighting for their pensions…
Overpaid how? People are able to leverage their talent and fame to negotiate salaries commensurate with their value as an artist; Barbara Hannigan is one of the foremost performers in the classical music world today, so I’d hope she would command a high salary.
But in the socialist utopia I’m sure she deserves less and should feel fine giving her salary to someone who lacks her skills but is deserving of help because…I don’t know. I can’t even come up with a reasonable analogue.
How is she “overpaid?”
Category A musicians in this orchestra make barely enough to survive on the outskirts of Paris, and Barbara Hannigan will be paid possibly the equivalent to one musician’s annual salary for a single performance + rehearsal time.
Sorry to break it to you, but there’s an incredible disparity going on here between those who do the music making and those who take credit for all the music making. Musicians are among the most well respected professionals in Europe, and yet this is what they’re forced to endure.
Apparently the musicians went on strike because, as one of them said, “things are terrible in France”.
Absolutely incredible nonsense. 64 would still be all but the lowest retirement age in the developed world. France spends twice as much on pensions as other OECD nations. Oh to live in such a terrible country.
I have a question. At what point would these people be prepared to work a little longer. If the average age of death in France reaches 90 for example? Which is by no means impossible in the next fifty years. Would they expect almost 30 years of pensionable retirement?
Yes, make your grandad work those hard hours, please tell him how he should suck it up and put more effort if he expects nice things
More gibberish. Welcome to SD, you’re going to provide lots of laughs.
@Alan: This point would never come. The idiot fascist Mitterrand (check out his life story before you wail) lowered the retirement age to 60 and it’s been impossible for presidents since to reverse the trend significantly.
I hope Barbara Hannigan can conduct the London Symphony Orchestra in Galfam Khayam’s piece before too long
Speaking of an orchestra that is criminally underpaid for their amount of work…
I wonder how the French think that there will be money available for them to retire. It seems that either the retirement age has to be raised or taxes have to be raised. These musicians are despicable.
So raise taxes on corporations, capital gains taxes, and repatriate offshore wealth then.
It’s that easy, is it? You realize the govt workers who come up with this same nonsense fail to realize the entities they are playing against pay huge salaries to much more intelligent people to find ways to avoid throwing their money away to govt incompetence.
Your trust in a body of supposed “public benefactors” will be your undoing.
Look, that’s the best case scenario. Given that we’re talking about France, the worst case scenario is that we start hearing the people sing, and then few very rich people and their families end up with… extremely short haircuts. I would hope that being taxed out of their wealth class is the option they choose.
The last revolution was a bourgeois one; the ‘workers’ never rose up.
I wonder if it would have been possible to do the performance without those striking idiots. If they are just a few chorus members without solo parts, who cares? Unfortunately especially In France those striking workers are very extreme. They are fighting for unrealistic dreams and even if they are successful at first sight, it’s just a Pyrrhic victory. They ruin the economy of their country and then wonder why they get fired later because their company can’t pay them. Striking musicians are the most special species because usually their jobs are heavily subsidized. If they would be paid by correct calculation what money they bring to their employer, they would earn less than half of their wage.
The French simply want to defend all the advances they have obtained through social conflicts and which make France one of the most advanced countries in terms of social welfare. This country’s life expectancy can be considered a test of that as its cultural exception with a state largely involved in the functioning and development of culture and the arts. This is what has made the cultural and artistic richness of this country which is envied all over the world.
“The world” find their incessant striking and whining about pensions laughably unsustainable. But please do go on about how wonderful life is in your socialist utopia.
“The world” is also currently crumbling under the weight of its own economic structure, so not sure why they’d be laughing. Ask your grandad if he’s enjoying being part of the population that your government cares so little about.
Grief, it continues…
Going on strike is a right in France and a one conquered after huge struggles.
I find it really inappropriate to blame and point out people who exert their own right.
Mme Hannigan works a lot in France and lives there, so she should know and accept customs and practices of the country.
She should also watch what she says, musicians are notoriously collectively minded. This kinda behaviour can get her axed from a lot of orchestras where she guest conducts, and she’s quite notably confined herself to a very specific niche of symphonic work.
You travel to France at your own risk.
Did it recently. Loved it. Eurostar was one of the best travel experiences of my life. Cafes in Paris are the bomb!
If you can get there.
Take the train, not the ferry
I think there is a significant difference if an orchestra or choir collectivley (based on majority vote) decides to go on strike or if a vocal minority basically makes a performance impossible for their colleagues.
Let’s get something clear here:
1) Anyone, everyone, has a right to strike, or call in sick, or cancel, including yes, conductors and divas and divos, who are by far the biggest offenders of cancelling at the last minute, ok?
2) No striker forced the concert to be cancelled, if management knowing full well the social climate today, didn’t plan ahead with contingencies, that’s on them.
Management can find a replacement conductor at the last minute from across the continent, but it can’t find a replacement orchestra musician from Paris?
3) Don’t tell me Paris doesn’t have a surplus of sub musicians who can jump in at the last minute. New York certainly does, crawling with free lancers!
Too bad for Paris, didn’t realize they were a provincial town with just one clarinetist and he was busy doing a wedding gig.
4) No, a concert has never, ever, in the history of the world, made a single difference in social justice, ok?
Strikes, on the other hand, have!
Right, so instead of striking, the French should be out in the streets giving concerts. Macron would sit up and take notice and change his mind!
In “getting something clear”, you actually blur a few things. Canceling a performance because of illness is an entirely different thing from canceling by choice as a political action, however worthy the intention. So the swipe at conductors, divas and divos as a group is specious and irrelevant. And a strike is commonly understood to be a collective action, taken by a group of workers who have chosen this course through their labor organization. It appears in this case that a majority of the musicians do not support this action, and their colleagues, a minority in the group, are prioritizing their own grievances over the choice of the body as a whole. Finallly, a cancellation announced by a small group of orchestra musicians on the morning of a world premiere must be intended to sabotage the performance, an action that they presumably wouldn’t be taking if they believed the orchestra could replace them by the evening. So to fault mgmt for being unable to find “a replacement orchestra musician” is again to blur the facts in service of your point. You are pleased to note that management should know the social climate and have contingencies, and yet, if that is the case, every single live music performance in Paris is under the same threat and must draw on the same pool of subs.
Divas have been known to cancel because they don’t like the temperature of the hall, so by comparison I think it’s reasonable for the musicians to take a politically motivated strike action.
Paris is teeming with freelance musicians, absolutely could the management have found a replacement. I speculate that not finding a replacement is rather an act of solidarity on the part of any available freelancers.
But all that aside, having to perform a piece on the subject of social justice for a wealthy audience (to whom these issues don’t matter) whilst there is no actual meaningful structural reform taking place can feel pretty disheartening, especially if as a musician in a Parisian orchestra you barely make enough to pay your living expenses.
The OPRF category A salary is barely enough to afford a place on the outskirts of the city, so not being paid a decent living wage AND being told you will work longer until retirement, all while the audience you perform for has their wealth hidden offshore? And you have to smile while they pretend to have done society some good for attending a performance of a one-off work by a foreign female composer? Yeah, I’d be livid.
Thank you @McDread, you made every point I wanted to make in response to @salvame, and more, and said it better : )
By the way, I find it supremely ironic that “salvame”, who gripes about selfish individual musicians who don’t act for the collective good of all the other musicians, calls himself “salva me” instead of “salva nos” ; )
You can’t replace someone who’s on strike. That’s the law.
No, sorry, that’s the law !
You’re thinking too easily about substitution. There was a world premiere, and it could be well possible that the music is very challenging. Not only on individual basis, but also in playing together. The risk of a world premiere that doesn’t sound as it should is high.
One can argue the merits of the strike and calling it at the last minute, but the public vitriol and whining from the top figures (Hannigan and to some extent Khayam) is rather cringeworthy and one of those “posts that should have been saved in the drafts folder” and not published like that.
Presumably, Hannigan will have to work/interact with these musicians in the future, so not sure how she envisages that will pan out after her public statement. And again, that’s irrespective of the validity and conduct of the strike. She *chose* how to react.
Also, “[t]his event was not an entertainment” — umm, *every* concert is entertainment. I get she feels strongly about the message of her piece, as do most/all composers, but a little humility is truly necessary.
Agreed. Not a good look for Hannigan or Khayam. I’m sure some orchestras (read: orchestras in which the musicians hold a lot of power, aka at least most European ones) would think twice before hiring them, knowing how they have no solidarity with the musicians. Unfortunately, orchestra musicians are not the best at keeping updated about the happenings in the music world…
This just reads as super-privileged, out-of-touch, wealthy Hannigan kicking down. Especially the update. Not a good look.
She’s from a very wealthy region of Canada, who have no union solidarity and very seldom take collective action. It’s highly likely that she grew up with an anti-union learned bias. Hell, many Canadians her age that I know still hold a very strong belief that unions are a front for organised crime, so…
Bravo to the striking musicians who acted unilaterally on their own without having the majority vote, they were just taking a page straight from Macron’s playbook, paragraph 49.3 to be exact, ha ha ha
French politics is not for the faint of heart, my dear.
Though highly inconvenient, the musicians have a right to strike, even on the day of a performance. The way this reads is that Hannigan considers every performance an extension of her ego, rather than an act that is achieved through many people’s hard work. Rather than taking the strike in her stride, as anyone who is paid as much as she is ought to, it seems like she has taken it as a personal affront and is now attacking the orchestra for having the audacity to ‘betray’ her.