Plamen Kartaloff: We sound the retreat, we have to protect the audience
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26 Oct 2020ploshtadslaveikov.com

Plamen Kartaloff: We sound the retreat, we have to protect the audience

Author:
Dilyana DIMITROVA
24.10.2020

The Sofia Opera and Ballet suspends the performances till 8 November – not only because of the coronavirus danger, but also due to economic reasons.

“At the Ministry of Finance there should be an economist for the arts. It is not acceptable Artistic departments to assess the financing and set limits for incomes”, says Acad. Plamen Kartaloff.

The Sofia Opera and Ballet announced today that temporarily will be suspended the spectacles because of the danger of Covid-19. From 24 October till 8 November silence will fall in the hall, but not only by reason of the fear of infection.

In front of Slaveykov Square the Director Plamen Kartaloff explained that it is economically unprofitable the institution, managed by him, to work at 50% capacity of the hall. Opera is exceptionally expensive art, and in their theatre the artistic staff includes a symphonic orchestra, chorus, ballet and soloists, besides they have workshops for costumes and sets, as well as a number of other services. And the state grant, which we receive for every sold ticket, is lower than the one for a series of institutions in Bulgaria, which don’t dispose of such a big team.

In a blitz interview in front of Slaveykov Square, Plamen Kartaloff presented in short the problems to which is facing our biggest opera theatre.

– Today you announced that you suspend temporarily the spectacles at the Sofia Opera and Ballet. Which is the concrete reason for taking this decision, Mr. Kartaloff?

– Having in mind this distressing information, we decided to associate ourselves with the order of the Mayor of Sofia to bring away the danger of infection.

– Yordanka Fandakova’s order doesn’t refer to the cultural institutions, but to the pubs and the night clubs, which will close for two weeks.

– It doesn’t refer to us, but irrespective of the comfortable environment, which we created in the hall, by this intensive artistic activity, which we have, it doesn’t have sense to risk. Almost everybody in culture stopped working. Yesterday evening we had a wonderful performance, the previous evening “Carmina Burana”, things are going great. But I would like to reassure the teams at the Opera, which in spite of the danger are working with exceptional responsibility and professionalism. Constantly people get infected, the problem comes most of all from the outside persons, who come at the theatre. We shall make up for the lost time, we worked at most during the summer anyway. Why to be under stress and to distress the audience? It’s not enough, it doesn't pay off under this limited access. This is why we shall calm things down a little bit and when we see how things are going, we shall resume the activity. All of our spectacles are ready.

We have many expenses, this isn’t a theatre with artists, a philharmonic with one orchestra. At the Opera are working four factories for artistic work. Separately a fabric for production of sets, costumes too. We don’t know what will be the policy of the Ministry of Culture by setting the standards for next year. You know that we are working under the lowest standard. I haven’t complained, as you mentioned in an interview with the Minister of Culture, I was scandalized – how is it possible the biggest cultural institute to receive the lowest subsidy?

– The Minister of Culture replied that you have some reasons – did they correct the amount of the grant for the Sofia Opera and Ballet?

– We don’t have corrections. We are taking advantage of the safety, which the Minister grants with the salaries. We are working a lot, as you see.

– Is there an increase of the cases with the coronavirus at the Sofia Opera after the soprano Gabriela Georgieva?

– Her colleague Gergana Rusekova is with a positive test too. Few are at our house the people with coronavirus, they are several persons, it’s not like at the theatres. From the Music Theatre many colleagues are coming for participation in our musicals. The coronavirus gave us some reasons not to mix the companies, as people say.

– The other reason for the temporal suspension of the spectacles, which you mentioned, is a financial one. Would you explain what is the calculation by half a hall?

– By removing the seats from the stalls то open place for the orchestra, little more than 600 seats remained for us. When we split them in half, at intervals of one seat, remained 320 seats. Therewith our costs don’t pay off. When you make little money, the state could help by multiplying by the respective standard. And we are performing at zero income. This is a distortion, which happened with the subsidies – to give higher grant to teams, which have nothing to do with the opera and ballet – this failed the budget. I respect all colleagues, but there were recalculations of the rate by artistic institutes, in which there were pop formations! This wasn’t correct – to bring one pop performer and make a concert of the respective theatre in the open air. Things are complex. The whole summer we were performing at the principle “own income-own expense”.

– You were in Italy about one week ago. What were the safety measures for limitation of the infection?

– I was invited in an international jury, the President of which was José Carreras, at an international competition for opera singers in Viterbo. Over 170 persons appeared, which means that there is a thirst the young artists to show themselves, to receive recognition. The organization was perfect. Everybody everywhere was going with a mask, a very shocking sight. Absolute discipline, all measures to guarantee the safety of the artists were observed, every member of the jury was placed in a separate box, you know the Italian theatres, they are in the form of horseshoe. I am very pleased, because this organization showed that the art of the opera will never stop existing. I was the only foreigner in the jury, and because I was there last year, I am strongly impressed by the care about the future of the young opera singers in Italy.

– Did you get tested for coronavirus?

– No, because I don’t have symptoms and complaints. But I do want to get tested. Because I am communicating with many people. My care is about our artists, about the audience. But it is troubling that these, although few means as incomes, which we have, are not multiplied by the standards. And it was possible the state to take them into account and to multiply them. We are among the few theatres, which are performing. Elsewhere there isn’t this activity – Varna came for one spectacle in Hall 1 of the National Palace of Culture, there are sporadic appearances. I admire the Philharmonic for trying to keep the guest-performances of their guest soloists, but the Opera is a collective and international art.

– What is the situation with the world opera theatres? Metropolitan Opera cancelled its new season, but elsewhere the theatres start opening.

– The theatres abroad are almost not working. They start opening their activity only now. Teatro Alla Scala in Milan for example must end their spectacles till 22 – 22,30 h. The starting hour is 20 h. And how a director will make a plan for 2 – 2 and a half hours to end the performance? It’s a big stress. The theatres have limited the guest-performances and their activity and almost all of them give concert performances, in order to keep distance between the performers on the stage. And I am asking myself why to spoil “Les Misérables” and make it a concert? This is one monolithic spectacle, which was so well appreciated by the international audience. In Italy at the moment people perform with reduced fees, nobody of the artists wants his or her full remuneration. One colleague from the jury told me:

“Artists are so desperate that they want to perform even for EUR 500, money isn’t important for them.”

– Is this the new trend at the opera theatres – not spectacles, but concerts to be performed?

– It is so, but unfortunately, they give another vision to the performance. The music is there, the artists are on the stage, the orchestra is playing, a distance can be kept, and at some theatres everybody performs with masks. I met many directors in Italy and we were talking with each other a lot. All efforts are focused on this life not to stop. In Italy there is a law – up to 200 people can enter per performance. Imagine a hall with 1800 seats with 200 people in it! The first example gave the Vienna Opera, with 100 spectators in the hall. Everywhere, when I’m asking how do you pay for all this, they answer: “Despite the limited incomes from the few seats, we have our means.” The theatres have budgets, but we in Bulgaria we don’t have budgets.

– Around the Covid-crisis quite a few theatre people in Bulgaria raise the topic that the delegated budget must be removed. How do you think, isn’t the coronavirus an occasion to be changed the way of financing of the stage arts in our country?

– It is exceptionally important at the Ministry of Finance there to be an economist for the arts. It is not acceptable Artistic departments to assess the financing and set limits for incomes. Our income for this year is fixed – 3 Mill. and 400 Thsd. And we, under the conditions of pandemic and restriction, have made already a little bit more than the half. During the summer we fulfilled the plan of many other institutions. Unfortunately, there is a lack of policy for art economics. If the delegated budget gets removed, there must be left some percent for self-financing, but the salaries, the insurance and the maintenance of the building to be provided. On the one hand, the delegated budgets did a great job, but the standards were an absolute mess. The Minister admits that we got inflicted a loss. Can the National Opera have a grant of BGN 4? Now they made it BGN 4,50, but this is not enough. And the rate in theatres outside the Capital, in the Philharmonic, in the Operetta is BGN 6.

– On what grounds yours is lower?

– Ask them. Because we are coping, this was the answer. How then to invest in new technologies? At the moment our orchestra has brand-new instruments, we invested in new lighting technique, in sound technique. All this was done with own resources. Let me not use the expression “we are fed up with it”, but we decided to sound some retreat. Till the end of the calendar year remain two months. There are still no algorithms, there isn’t the algorithm of economical thinking.

– It is interesting how culture will be granted next year at so few incomes in 2020.

– The total income in a cultural institution consists of income from tickets, incomes from rents, if there are such, as well as from sponsors and grantors. Recalculated are only the incomes from tickets. If, let’s say, you have made total incomes of BGN 1,8 Mill., this is a merit of the management, a sign of high quality of financing from own activity, and if you have for example BGN 1,6 Mill. income from tickets, at the Ministry they will not multiply for you BGN 1,8 Mill. by BGN 4,50, but less. Imagine one theatre outside the Capital, if it makes this income, then it will come much forward than the Sofia Opera – because of the higher грант. This cannot be, it’s not fair. But because we manage, so it came to a terrible inertia.

It’s good that you raise such topics, but we must sit with economists, and not with people of art, who make the accounts at the Ministry. It is not acceptable the Artistic Department to set the algorithm of financing, somehow it isn’t fair. We made such a big repertoire, we were in Moscow, in Germany, at that with the heaviest repertoire, we made the heaviest productions. Excuse me, what more should we prove? That the National Opera Theatre is an emblem for the culture in Bulgaria? This is why at your first question – retreat. We shall work, but people are afraid to enter the hall. And the audience has to be protected, people must not get together, they must not communicate with each other. We have put one magnificent flower at intervals of one seat. The hall is very beautiful – but now some rest.

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