Bayreuth says a smaller choir won’t affect quality
Opera(Where have we heard this before?)
The Festival has issued a statement explaining why its chorus needs to be 40% smaller:
All theatre and opera companies are affected by significant cost increases, which, without savings measures or an increase in subsidies, will lead to economic difficulties in the following years. In addition to e.g. B. high energy costs and increased costs for purchasing materials, these are in particular personnel costs due to very high collective agreements in the public sector, which affect all employees at the Bayreuth Festival on the basis of collective agreements. At around 75%, personnel expenses are the main cost item in the financial year with a total budget of around €30 million.
The additional financial requirement will cumulatively amount to several million euros in the following years. Therefore, under the premise that there will be no full compensation through an increase in subsidies, the management has developed suggestions on how the expected cost increases can be countered. In addition to the restructuring of the festival choir, a change to the contractual conditions with regard to the number of services and the period of employment was agreed with the orchestra, which will result in savings in the six-figure range.
The vdo and the choir board were informed by the management of the Bayreuth Festival that there would be a restructuring of the festival choir. In the future, this will consist of a main choir and a special choir consisting of professional singers, which means that the usual 134 choir members can continue to be heard in all of the featured choral works.
As a result of the restructuring, there is no need to fear any loss of musical quality or the loss of a unique selling point. The switch to the main choir and special choir system, which has already proven itself in the past, is a suitable means of meeting the savings requirements that we were asked to comply with.
How on earth can a drastic reduction in the size of a Wagnerian chorus NOT affect the quality of a performance? Such an assurance from Bayreuth beggars belief.
They say the size of the choir will not change.
What will change is that they will have only a reduced size on the all summer payroll, and those operas who need bigger choirs – which are not all but only a few – will see the choir enlarged with project based freelance hires from a selected pool of freelancers. If it affects quality remains to be heard, but the sizes of the choirs do not change. (They say now) They only don‘t afford the luxury anymore to pay the big choir all summer, while many of the singers only sing in a few of the performances, not in all.
Cressida, is that you..?
Did they ever think about hiring better directors, so to attract more audience and fascinate them with better productions?
Did they consider about extending more weeks of the festival or even broadcasting worldwide, and then receiving for this?
Did they ever entertain the idea of sharing what they do in the system of co-productions with many other opera venues around the world, therefore slicing their fixed costs?
You see, there are many wiser ways the Festspiele managers could choose without bleeding their choir body (maybe the weakest bond in the chain).
I’ll give this credence once 40% of the administration is cut as well.
Hmm…Does this mean that it’s the women’s chorus which will be reduced or farmed out? They have far less to sing in the seven approved works than the men. Will the ‘special chorus’ consist of BT chorus regulars? I seem to remember Scottish Opera doing away with their chorus, thinking it would be cheaper to rehire the members on an ad hoc basis. How did that work out?
Oh, and for the record: You find choirs in churches and choruses in opera houses.
Non credo.
Considering the regie staging its audience is required to stomach at Bayreuth, a leaner choral sound is a very minor flaw in comparison.
I realise this may be utter blasphemy to some Wagner fans, but it is high time this wonderful building was used for more than performing just some of one man’s repertoire for a few weeks each year – and then maybe they might have more money to put on his works!
Or they could just cut the orchestra back from 200 to 170 without much impact. I’d rather see more chorus and hear a horn or two less.
Less choir in Parsifal? Tanhäuser?
And it’s told from Bayreyth? Really?????
Don’t leave out Lohengrin.