The Stage

Scottish Opera to cut third of workforce

Published Tuesday 8 June 2004 at 13:05 by Ruth Gillespie

More than one in three jobs are to be axed at Scottish Opera and the company will go dark for nine months as part of a rescue plan that critics fear will put an end to international opera north of the border.

The Scottish Executive has agreed to invest £7 million in a restructuring package that it said would enable the company to live within its £7.5 million annual budget. In return, a £4.5 million loan must be repaid to the Scottish Arts Council over the next four years.

However, unions are outraged by the proposal to lose as many as 88 jobs. This involves reducing core posts in the chorus, as well as the technical and administration departments, from 208 to approximately 120 by June 2005. Government money will also be used to cover losses at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre and Glasgow’s Theatre Royal between June 2005 and March 2006 when the company will be forced to halt productions.

SO will continue negotiations to lease its Theatre Royal home to a private management chain such as the Ambassador Theatre Group but will retain its 53-member orchestra. The opera will separate entirely from Scottish Ballet, with which it currently shares staff.

Equity’s general secretary Ian McGarry has said he is appalled by the announcement and fears the entire 34-strong chorus will be made redundant in the coming months.

He added: “Equity will continue to resist these redundancies by all possible means. Rather than a rescue plan, this could be the death of opera on an international scale in Scotland. If the management succeeds in its plans to sack these experienced and talented choristers, the singers will have no choice but to leave Scotland to find other work.

“This throws doubt upon statements by chief executive Christopher Barron that his plan will enable SO to continue to produce opera of an international standard. There will be no talent base in Scotland. We know from years of experience that to produce quality ensemble opera, you must have a core permanent chorus who know each other and know the repertoire. The artistic future of a Scottish Opera mounting every production with a pick-up chorus must be extremely uncertain.”

McGarry criticised the executive for investing a further £7 million of public funds into the same management team that had been responsible for the company’s current financial crisis.

SO’s new reincarnation is expected to see education and outreach take as much as a third of the budget but critics believe the money should instead be used to increase the opera’s current annual subsidy of £7.5 million by £1 million a year. The plan will be subject to a 60-day consultation period with union representatives.