The end-of-year boom in box office earnings at the Paris Opera Ballet has been severely hit by strike action.
Pierre Lacotte’s 2021 version of Paquita at the Opéra Bastille was programmed from 5 December until 4 January, and Alexander Ekman’s long sold-out Play at the Palais Garnier from 7 December until 4 January. It is now 11 December and five performances have already been cancelled and the theatre has said that loss revenue amounts to €150,000 for Play and €260,000 for Paquita.
Dancer and CGT trade union representative, Matthieu Botto, said that “a large majority of the dancers” are on strike.
It is part of an action started in February 2023 “to request a re-evaluation of the preparation time specific to all [their] artistic activities within the Opera”, reported Le Monde.
The strike, following unsuccessful negotiations, concerns the remuneration of preparation time before performances. According to the union, only six hours of monthly preparation are paid, compared to a real average of 30 hours.
The group of dancers performing in Paquita, saying that there had been no response from management, announced that they were adhering “to the official call time of 30 minutes before the start of the performance”. Hair, make-up and warm-up need between one and a half and two hours. The audience was already seated when they said that the ballet would have to begin an hour and a half later than the announced start time. The management decided that the performance should be cancelled. In a press release, the dancers said that their request to address the audience directly had been refused.
The theatre’s management pointed out that fixed salaries had been increased by 6.4%, and “substantial measures have been put in place over the past two years to improve the organisation of working hours”.
Strikes at the Paris Opera have cost €18 million between 2015 to 2023. Its director, Alexander Neef, said, “Let’s remember that the economic model is more precarious than it was 20 years ago since the state subsidy [40% of the budget] no longer covers the house’s fixed costs, which are €150 million. We’ve managed to make this new model work. That’s why every curtain raiser is essential.”
Graham Spicer, aka ‘Gramilano’, is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. His articles have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the Danza in Italia column for Dancing Times magazine. Graham was the historical advisor on Codice Carla, the 2023 documentary on Carla Fracci.
