Economy & Trade, Headlines, Labour, Latin America & the Caribbean

CHILE: Musicians’ Strike Leads to Cancellation of Opera Season

Daniela Estrada

SANTIAGO, Jun 14 2006 (IPS) - The Santiago Municipal Theatre, one of Latin America’s foremost orchestra halls, is facing its worst crisis ever: for the first time in its nearly 150-year history, it has been forced to cancel its opera and concert season because of a strike by musicians.

Few people were surprised when the cancellation of all engagements of the Santiago Municipal Theatre Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus was announced, as the theatre has been plagued by serious financial troubles for years.

The decision, announced in late May, was taken unanimously by the directors of the Cultural Corporation of the Municipality of Santiago, which administers the Theatre and is presided over by Mayor Raúl Alcaíno.

The reason given by the municipal authorities was the complicated situation at the Municipal Theatre caused by a strike declared by a group of 18 musicians in the Philharmonic Orchestra, which they said has led to the cancellation of six performances so far this year.

The 18 musicians do not form part of the regular staff of full-time musicians.

In the first week of June, with the audience already in their seats, “Otello” by Giuseppe Verdi was cancelled three times. The opera featured famous Chilean soprano Verónica Villarroel, who had travelled to Santiago from New York, where she lives.

Contradictory statements abound. While the musicians say their wages and benefits have not been paid since October 2005, Andrés Pinto, the director of the Permanent Corps (Orchestra, Chorus and Ballet) of the Municipal Theatre says the Corporation settled the back pay owed before taking the drastic decision to cancel engagements.

“We’re not asking for a casino or silk-covered chairs, we just want to be paid. We play in a pit with terrible heating, we can’t even have a drink of water, and they can’t even pay us 400,000 pesos (about 800 dollars)” a month, said bassoon player Carolina Angulo, speaking for the 18 temporary musicians.

Last year the Corporation cut the number of permanent orchestra members in order to reduce the Theatre’s fixed costs, so now it has to hire extra musicians when putting on works that require a larger orchestra.

“I think this is a power struggle. The musicians won’t accept that there is an administration in charge of running the Theatre,” Pinto told IPS, in an attempt to explain the origins of the conflict.

To resolve the crisis, the mayor pointed to the need for changing the regulations applicable to the permanent corps of the Theatre, which he said granted the musicians and artists “burdensome privileges.”

According to Alcaíno, the musicians work between 18 and 24 hours a week, are paid 13 monthly salaries a year, and are entitled to more than 100 days of annual leave, which means they must be available to the Philharmonic Orchestra “little more than 145 days a year, so it is impossible to fulfil opera and concert season programmes.”

“I think these statements are incredible, since the directors are paid salaries in the millions (of pesos),” Cristián Navarrete, president of the Federation of Unions of Workers and Artists of the Municipal Theatre (FEDARTE), replied to IPS.

Navarrete said that the Philharmonic Orchestra regular musicians supported the demands of the 18 strikers, but had never themselves threatened to stop playing. “So far, we have had no meetings with the Cultural Corporation, nobody has come to tell us why this unilateral decision has been taken (to cancel the engagements). All our information has been from the press,” he added.

The spokesman directly accused the Corporation of bad management, saying it has incurred expenditures of millions of pesos which it cannot afford in the long term, and mentioned particularly performances by international artists. “We believe that Chilean artists should be given priority, instead of spending fortunes on airfare and taxes,” he said.

Pinto, however, denied that the Theatre was badly managed, and told IPS that over the past year, the institution’s longstanding debts had been cut from five billion pesos (over nine million dollars) to three billion pesos.

This was achieved in spite of the Theatre not having received all the funds promised by a commission set up in 2004 by former president Ricardo Lagos, in order to reach a definitive solution to the financial crisis.

The commission drew up a National Project for the Municipal Theatre (2005-2010) which envisaged, among other things, performances in different regions of the country and a new financing plan.

It was agreed that each year the Municipal Theatre would receive six billion pesos (about 12 million dollars) from public monies: 2.5 billion from the municipality of Santiago, 1.5 billion from the central government via the Ministry of Culture, and two billion from the three richest municipalities in the Metropolitan Region (Las Condes, Vitacura and Providencia).

In spite of opposition from the mayors of those municipalities, parliament passed a law in 2005 so that a portion of their revenues would go to the Theatre. In addition to these funds, the Theatre would still have the money collected monthly from sponsors, donations and ticket sales.

However, owing to delays in the passage of the law, the municipality of Santiago did not receive the money stipulated in 2005, and this year it has only received the contributions from the municipalities of Vitacura and Las Condes (Providencia has refused to take part, out of opposition to the law).

Pinto said that once all the funds are in hand, the plan to restore financial health to the institution can be implemented without any problems.

Meanwhile, until the conflict is resolved, the regular musicians will continue to work and draw their salaries. A programme of free educational concerts by the Philharmonic Orchestra has been planned.

The Cultural Corporation has also said that the Santiago Ballet and foreign produced performances will go on.

Although all parties have said that they are willing to talk, there have been no clear signs of rapprochement.

“The cancellation of the programme of operas and concerts could be reversed, if agreement on labour regulations can be reached with the musicians,” Pinto said. He expressed optimism about the future of the Theatre, which will be 150 years old in 2007.

The musicians have asked the Culture minister, Paulina Urrutia, to mediate in the conflict, arguing that the public interest is at issue, even though the government has no right to interfere in municipal decisions.

Maximiliano Valdés, director of the Philharmonic Orcestra, who resigned his post a few weeks ago as a result of the conflict, said he hoped “for an end to mutual accusations of breach of trust.”

Valdés emphasised that Santiago’s Municipal Theatre “has the longest unbroken history in Latin America, has always fulfilled its commitments to its artists, and has upheld extremely high standards of excellence.”