Nov 12, 2007

Grèves, encore





As France is getting ready for a second round of transportation strikes on wednesday (beginning tomorrow night for the trains), the Paris Opera is also getting ready; after the strike of the end of October that resulted in several performances cancellations, this time, the strike could last up to 16 days.

I guess it's not that bad, since you won't be able to go to the Opera House anyway, with the transportation strike.


By the way, one of the stupidest excuses to justify this mess was given by the technical staff of the Garnier Opera: « C'est vrai qu'on bosse dans un cadre magnifique. Mais en plateau, on est dans le noir et la poussière toute la journée », dit Christophe. Sans compter l'effort physique. « On a un plateau à l'italienne, incliné à 5 %. C'est d'autant plus dur de monter et démonter les décors. Je ne me vois pas à 60 ans porter encore des murs ou soulever des danseuses pour les faire disparaître du décor », explique Nicolas.

My translation:
"It's true we work in a magnificent place. But, on the stage, we are in the dark and dust all day long" says Christophe. And that's without taking into account the physical effort. " We operate an Italian-like stage, with a 5% slope. It's even harder to build and unbuild the set. I don't envision myself at 60 still lifting walls or raising dancers to make them disappear from the stage" explains Nicolas.

Well, that's a first: the weight of dancers.
And that's a shame, this slippery slope of huge proportions that has so much effect on eveybody.
By the way, when the Garnier Opera was inaugurated in 1875, how were the technicians doing?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

"By the way, when the Garnier Opera was inaugurated in 1875, how were the technicians doing?"

Comment ils faisaient ? Mais ma chère, il avaient la courtoisie de mourir jeune ! Qu'est-ce que vous voulez ma pov' dame, maintenant le petit peuple demande une vieillesse pas trop pourrie !

*Hirek, pro lait taire