The Opéra du Rhin and the Opéra de Rouen, victims of the economic context, are temporarily lowering the curtain during the season.
Twenty productions already canceled in 2023, more than 120 suspended, an opera house which is temporarily closing its doors: inflation and the cost of energy have plunged the lyric world into a zone of turbulence. In mid-January, the Opéra du Rhin canceled a show during the season, citing unforeseeable increases in costs.
This was followed by the surprise announcement by the Rouen Opera of a five-week closure for budgetary reasons. The State has urgently released nearly 200,000 euros. But the deprogrammings follow one another across the country and 26 lyrical and symphonic productions have been canceled and 126 performances suspended this year, according to the union Les Forces musicales. And 76% of its members (about fifty opera houses and orchestras) are struggling to balance their current budget. “It’s unique and worrying“, told AFP Frédéric Pérouchine, director of La Réunion des Opéras de France (ROF), a network made up of around thirty lyrical structures.
“Subsidies are stagnating at best, declining at worst”
“We are at a time when everything accumulates“, he adds, citing the post-pandemic period, inflation, the cost of energy and the increase in salaries and charges. And, for fifteen years, “subsidies are at best stagnating, at worst declining, so it’s a scissors effect“, he said. “It didn’t all happen all at once, but the economic situation acted as a revealer and we can now see the hidden side of the iceberg.“If the ROF assures that audiences have returned to theaters, the problem goes beyond the question of filling.”For years, opera houses have been adapting with odds and ends; then, with unpredictable crises like the pandemic or the energy crisis, it is no longer tenable“, specifies Frédéric Pérouchine.
Even the most subsidized opera scene in France, the Paris Opera, is struggling to pay off its debts, despite substantial state aid. In recent weeks, the prestigious institution has embarked on unprecedented operations intended to diversify its revenue: auctions, cruises with star dancers and even… an agreement with Airbnb to offer a couple a night at the Palais Garnier.
Many jobs at stake
“We are lucky in France to have communities and a State that finance culture“, believes Frédéric Pérouchine. “Nobody wants to sell off the lyrical or give up the wealth of these houses“who present a diversity of jobs and are the pride of their city.”But local authorities tell us that they have to fight today to keep their culture budget because opposite, there is that of health, etc.“. The lyric is the “network which employs the most permanent artists in live performance“, recalls Aline Sam-Giao, director of the Musical Forces.
Operas often have permanent orchestras, choirs and/or ballet companies, which means a much larger payroll and operating costs than theater structures. In addition, the missions and therefore the workforce of opera houses have grown significantly over the past 30 years, in particular to democratize an art still considered elitist.
A worrying future
“Should we touch on the mission of showing the symphonic and lyrical repertoire to as many people as possible and give up, for example, free concerts in prisons or schools?“, asks Aline Sam-Giao. At the Opéra National du Rhin, supported in particular by three cities, Strasbourg, Colmar, Mulhouse, and which is facing a drop in endowments in 2023, director Alain Perroux believes that operas of region”did not wait for the crisis to tighten our spending and seek private funding“.
“It’s time to meet around a table with all the public partners to discuss the distribution of grants“, says the director, who will reduce the number of tours on his initiative flying opera in regions considered “cultural deserts“.”For the moment, rather than lowering the quality, we lower the volume a little. What worries us are the years 2024, 2025…“, he says.