In May 2024, 25 employees at the Gothenburg Opera were notified of layoffs, which were expected to save 50 million kronor in the coming year. However, the notice was withdrawn in February as the cuts were resolved through natural attrition, voluntary redundancy offers, and fixed-term contracts that were not renewed.
Violinist Wojtek Chojecki, representative of Symf (Swedish Musicians' Union) at the Gothenburg Opera, claims that the orchestra is understaffed.
In order to play works by Wagner and Strauss, high numbers are required, not least in the string sections, and we do not have enough musicians for that today, he says to Gothenburg-Posten.
Andreas Lönnqvist, orchestra manager at the Gothenburg Opera, does not share this view and tells GP that the opera will also have an orchestra in the future that can play the repertoire they want – including composers like Wagner and Strauss.
Certain works always require extra staffing, for example, when we played Wagner last time, we had to bring in six extra musicians who played the harp, he says.
