As of the end of June, 93 member companies had submitted the simple 14-question survey charting the impact of the pandemic on their operations. Before completing a fuller analysis, the aim is to reach at least 100 members, in order to present a comprehensive view across Europe. The survey may be found at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GFXZZ53
Productivity
• Out of 13,019 performances planned for the 2019/20 season, 5,283 have had to be cancelled, a loss of over 40%
Finance
• 295 million € of the 915 million € budgeted as income for the 2019/20 season has been lost because of theatre closures, 32% of the total
• Average income loss across 90 companies is 3.278 million €
• Projected income for autumn 2020 is 40% of initially budgeted income
• Average projected income loss is 2.334 million €
• So a cumulative average of 5.612 million € per company for the year 2020
Jobs
• A sample of 85 companies employs 27,560 permanent staff and offers freelance contracts to 28,259 others, a total of 55,819 jobs
• 13,292 staff have been furloughed and 12,220 freelance contracts have been cancelled, so about half the industry is out of work
• Extrapolated across all members, that equates to 65,000 unemployed
Re-engagement
• 92% of companies have been reaching audiences online; 47% have initiated other live artistic activities; and 56% have offered time and skills for non-artistic endeavours in the community
• Since that activity does not yield significant income, emergency support will remain vital to sustain opera and its workforce during the 2020/21 season, while they adapt programmes and budgets
Nicholas Payne, 1 July 2020