SCOTTISH OPERA officials were criticised yesterday after it emerged that 34 singers were dismissed ten minutes before they were due to go on stage.
The members of the chorus were told that they were being made redundant shortly before a performance of La Boheme at the Festival Theatre in Edinburgh. Minutes later they had to leave the dressing room and appear on stage for Scottish Opera’s 2½-hour adaption of Puccini’s story of young love.
Having fulfilled their professional duty, the chorus gathered outside the theatre after the performance to protest against the decision.
Opera lovers who attended the show voiced support for the singers. One man said: “I think it is absolutely scandalous. This is a wonderful company. I can’t believe they are doing this.”
The announcement — and its timing — angered the singers’ union, Equity, which promised to fight the job losses.
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Roseanna Cunningham, the Scottish National Party’s Culture Minister, described the treatment of the chorus as “absolutely appalling”.
She said: “Ministers must admit that they knew about decisions that have been taken by Scottish Opera, because no employee, regardless of where they work, should ever be treated in this fashion.”
Tommy Sheridan, leader of the Scottish Socialist Party, said: “This is an absolutely disgraceful way to treat workers. The sacking of the Scottish Opera chorus is nothing less than an act of wanton cultural vandalism.”
Scottish Opera insisted yesterday that the chorus was merely being “updated on the current position” in continuing consultations with Equity.
Scottish Opera said in a statement that an Equity official, Lorne Boswell, had met the company on Tuesday, and before that meeting he had been given written details of the company’s plans. “At this point in the season the only occasions when the chorus are assembled together are in relation to performances, currently at Edinburgh Festival Theatre, as no operas are in rehearsal at this time.”
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But Mr Boswell dismissed the company’s approach as “crass and insensitive”.
He said: “They were called in at 7.05pm, when the curtain was due to go up at 7.15pm, and told that the management proposed to make their posts redundant.
The Scottish Executive confirmed last week that Scottish Opera was to undergo a radical restructuring which would include the loss of 88 out of 208 posts and a nine-month break from big productions.