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The Teatro dell'Opera di Roma had racked up millions of euros
of losses and sacked hundreds of orchestra and chorus members
last year as Italy's deepest post-war economic crisis choked
funding for the arts.
Productions were canceled and the former honorary director,
internationally renowned conductor Riccardo Muti, quit after
months of strikes over conditions and staffing levels.
"Last year, the theater was seen as an emblem, a metaphor for an
Italy that did not work, that was bogged down with problems,"
general director Carlo Fuortes said at a news conference in the
angular gray opera house in central Rome.
But it now expects to balance its 2014 accounts, despite
continued cuts in ordinary state funding, partly thanks to a
program masterminded by former culture minister Massimo Bray.
Under the Bray scheme, which pledged funds to theaters that
presented a credible turnaround plan, the opera house received a
15 million euro chunk of funds in January, allowing it to pay
performers, suppliers, and public authorities.
"With the January tranche, we have a serenity we haven't had for
a very long time," Fuortes said.
A deal struck with unions should stave off the risk of more
strikes until 2016, and box office takings from one-off and
season tickets so far this year are almost triple what they were
in the same period last year.
Fuortes said sales were unlikely to triple in each of the three
coming quarters, but the Bray funds had definitively resolved
many financial problems at the theater, which was now "working
normally".
The main opera house is preparing to open a production of "Aida"
on April 23. The theater also stages concerts at the ruined
baths of Caracalla, where Elton John and Bob Dylan are due to
play this summer.
(Editing by Alison Williams)
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