Abstract

In the last years, the Italian Opera Houses Foundations 1996 reform failed to provide a sustainable flow of private financial resources to compensate the reduction of the public sector endowments. The defence by the local authorities, who have power in them, and the legal protection to the employees has induced the Opera Houses not to guarantee the principle of the budget constraint, at the no profit level. The reform was viable only for La Scala, the Santa Cecilia Academy and the Verona Opera House, just 3 of the 14 existing opera houses in Italy. The deficit deepening was the target of the latest (June 2010) provision of the Italian Ministry of the Cultural Goods, aiming to contrast the level and the increasing in the labour costs. The author, a former La Scala sovrintendente (general manager), explains why this provision is wrong, suggesting an alternative focus of the needed changes not just on labour contracts and costs, but on a general reconsideration of the organizations, a revision of the offer's territorial basins of every house, and a clear dimension of public funds really available for opera.