Save San Francisco Opera

For more than a century, San Francisco Opera has been one of our city’s defining cultural institutions. At the center of every performance is the San Francisco Opera Orchestra—musicians who have devoted their lives to their art through decades of training, fiercely competitive auditions, and the daily work required to perform at the highest level.

Today, San Francisco Opera is approaching its new season without a successor agreement in place for its Orchestra.

The musicians’ previous agreement expired on July 31. According to the Orchestra’s public statements, management opened negotiations with a proposal that would reduce compensation by approximately 26%, which the musicians say would return them to roughly 2015 wage levels. The Orchestra has said that management later revised its proposal to approximately a 20% reduction, equivalent to roughly 2018 wages.

San Francisco Opera has characterized its proposal differently. Management has said that its five-year framework is intended to preserve musicians’ current annual earnings while restructuring compensation, and it has pointed to the company’s continuing structural deficit and financial challenges. But the larger reality remains: San Francisco Opera is entering a critical moment in its history without a new agreement with the musicians at the artistic center of the company.

At the same time, the institution continues to make long-term decisions about its future. San Francisco Opera recently extended General Director Matthew Shilvock’s contract through the 2030–31 season. The Orchestra, meanwhile, has publicly said that without an acceptable agreement, its musicians may not be able to perform as scheduled.

We stand with the musicians and believe San Francisco Opera must reach a fair and sustainable agreement with its Orchestra.

A world-class opera company cannot thrive if the artists responsible for creating its music are asked to absorb continued reductions in compensation, employment weeks, or performance opportunities.

The Orchestra is not simply another operating expense. It is an essential part of the artistic foundation of every opera presented on the War Memorial Opera House stage. This dispute is therefore about more than one contract.

It is about what kind of cultural institution San Francisco Opera intends to be in the years ahead. It is about whether the company will continue to support the artistic infrastructure required to remain one of America’s leading opera companies.

And it is about whether musicians who have dedicated their careers to this institution can continue to build their lives and careers in San Francisco.

We call on the San Francisco Opera Board of Directors to:

•  Reach a fair, stable, multi-year agreement with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra as soon as possible.
  Reject proposals that would substantially roll back guaranteed annual compensation, employment weeks, or meaningful performance opportunities for the Orchestra.
• Include meaningful cost-of-living protections that recognize the extraordinary cost of living in the San Francisco Bay Area.
• Develop and communicate a credible long-term strategy for rebuilding audiences, productions, performance weeks, fundraising, and the artistic reach of the company rather than accepting continued contraction as inevitable.
• Recognize the impact that a shrinking season has on audiences and on access to the arts in San Francisco. Many of us remember seasons with eight or nine productions, and we have watched that number gradually decline over the years. We ask the Opera to consider what continued contraction means not only for the institution, but for the people of San Francisco who rely on it to experience world-class opera in their own city.
• Ensure that financial sustainability is pursued in a way that protects the artistic quality and institutional reputation that generations of musicians, artists, staff members, donors, and audiences have helped build.
• Board leadership is not ceremonial. The Board of Directors has a responsibility to safeguard the institution’s mission, financial health, artistic standards, artists, audiences, and long-term future.

We therefore ask Board Chair Barbara A. Wolfe, Board President Jack Calhoun, General Director Matthew Shilvock, and the full San Francisco Opera Board of Directors to explain clearly how the current strategy protects both the financial sustainability and artistic future of this institution—and to take responsibility for the outcome.

The musicians have made clear publicly that they want to perform. Audiences want to hear them. Donors and patrons want San Francisco Opera to succeed. And San Francisco deserves an opera company capable of protecting both its financial future and the extraordinary artists who make its work possible.

We believe those goals are not incompatible. They must be achieved together. 

Tell the San Francisco Opera Board:

Reach a fair agreement.
Protect the Orchestra.
Protect the future of opera in San Francisco.

 
About Save SF Opera

Save SF Opera is an independent, citizen-led initiative organized by a small group of San Francisco residents who care deeply about the future of opera in our city.

Among us are longtime audience members and supporters of the performing arts. Some of us have attended San Francisco Opera for years, including as subscribers, patrons, or donors.

For some time, we have become increasingly concerned about the direction of the institution—artistically, financially, and, most recently, about what the current labor dispute could mean for the musicians and for the future of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra.

Save SF Opera is not affiliated with, employed by, authorized by, funded by, directed by, or speaking on behalf of San Francisco Opera, the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, the American Federation of Musicians Local 6, the City and County of San Francisco, or any other organization involved in these negotiations.

We do not represent the musicians or their union.

The musicians, their union, and San Francisco Opera do not direct this campaign. Our positions are our own.

Save SF Opera relies on publicly available information, including public statements issued by the Orchestra, San Francisco Opera, news organizations, and other publicly accessible sources. Where the parties characterize facts or proposals differently, we seek to make those differences clear.

We have chosen, for now, not to identify the individual organizers of Save SF Opera because this campaign is not about us. We are not seeking recognition, influence, employment, or a role in the negotiations.

We are simply San Franciscans and supporters of the arts who believe that one of our city’s greatest cultural institutions—and the artists who make its work possible—deserve a strong and sustainable future. Ultimately, the question should not be who created this website or petition.

The question should be whether San Francisco is willing to allow one of its great cultural institutions to become smaller, weaker, and less artistically ambitious—or whether its community will speak up for its future.

This is about protecting the Orchestra, preserving world-class opera in San Francisco, and making sure that when the curtain rises, the music is still there.