“No strategic project”, significant operating expenses, but “weak” revenues: the municipal management of the Marseille opera and the Odeon theater is crushed in a report by the Regional Chamber of Accounts of Provence- Alps-Cote d’Azur.
A report from the Regional Chamber of Accounts of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, made public on Tuesday, scrutinizes the management by the city of Marseille of the municipal opera and the Odéon theater. The opera (1,800 seats) and the theater (800 seats) “have no strategic project” And “no annual report makes it possible to trace the detailed activity of the two cultural facilities” managed under direct municipal management and brought together under the same management since 2013, notes the summary of the report, which covers the years 2016 and following.
20 million euros of expenses per year
“The Odéon opera and theater do not have a formal establishment plan” And “are thus managed by the community over the seasons”says the report, which adds that “Developing a strategy requires prior detailed knowledge of the public”which neither of the two structures has undertaken.“Neither the orchestra nor the opera have a national label”continue the magistrates, according to which this absence “deprived the opera of resources from the state” And “also freed him from all obligations related to compliance with specifications”. However, the city has been engaged since 2022 in a process to obtain the label “National Opera in the region”says the report.
Moreover, “in the absence of cost accounting, the municipality does not know the full cost of this service which nevertheless employs more than 350 agents and generates operating expenses of more than 20 million euros per year, i.e. the equivalent of the budget functioning of a municipality of 15,000 inhabitants”notes the report, noting that in addition “revenues are low”due in particular to an opaque free policy.
“The rates are low, but the municipality cannot increase them, given the comfort conditions which should be improved”with some “buildings, warehouses and workshops (…) in an advanced state of degradation”, he adds. At the same time, the activity of the two structures “bends”according to the report, which points to a reduction in the number of works and performances offered at the opera during the five seasons studied.
“Absenteeism of civil servants”
Finally, in terms of human resources, the magistrates castigate a “increasing recourse” to intermittent workers, in particular for “compensate for the absenteeism of civil servants” while the musicians, some of whom “cumulate several full-time jobs”do on average “only half or two-thirds” of “number of services (rehearsals and performances) provided for by the orchestra’s working regulations”.
Marseilles cultural institutions are regularly singled out. In a report from December 2021, the Regional Chamber of Accounts had already severely pinpointed the city’s management of its municipal museums. This new controversy also comes on top of that surrounding the takeover of management by the city of Marseille of the Château de la Buzine, the supposed My mother’s castle by Marcel Pagnol.