STATEMENTS ON CURRENT NEGOTIATIONS
Learn more about the current negotiations using the buttons below.
- MN OPERA BOARD OF DIRECTORS STATEMENT OF SUPPORT
- MN OPERA STATEMENT ON THE MANY DEATHS OF LAILA STARR POSTPONEMENT
- OVERVIEW OF CURRENT NEGOTIATIONS
MN OPERA BOARD OF DIRECTORS STATEMENT OF SUPPORT
As members of the Minnesota Opera Board of Directors, we assure the public and arts community that we are committed to seeing current negotiations with the MN Opera Orchestra successfully resolved so we may get back to focusing on what we love—opera.
We are extremely proud of and invested in the work of MN Opera—singers, creatives, directors, orchestra, artisans, administrators, staff, and others. And we fully support the company’s difficult decision to postpone the world premiere of The Many Deaths of Laila Starr as a necessary step to respect MN Opera’s commitment to its artists, audiences, and the integrity of its productions.
As fiduciaries, we must consider the totality of the circumstances in our governance of MN Opera. The MN Opera Orchestra is one of many components required to create this magnificent art form. The company is producing as much opera as it can with the resources it has. As the board and staff work together to solve the central challenge of our organization—a growing structural gap between rising production expenses and available resources to cover them—the long-term implications of contracts on the overall health of the company must be carefully considered.
MN Opera’s Negotiating Committee, which includes a board representative, is the voice of the organization for bargaining purposes, and both the committee and company leadership have the Board’s full support. We remain hopeful the parties can reach an equitable resolution that aligns with the MN Opera’s current operations and financial realities. We believe the musicians’ union should focus on mandatory subjects of bargaining, such as compensation and benefits. Organizational leadership and vision fall outside the scope of bargaining, and complaints about them will not contribute to successful resolution of our negotiations.
For more information regarding the postponement or negotiation updates, please visit mnopera.org/negotiations.
-The Minnesota Opera Board of Directors
MN OPERA STATEMENT ON THE MANY DEATHS OF LAILA STARR POSTPONEMENT
It is with profound disappointment that MN Opera announces the postponement of the world premiere of The Many Deaths of Laila Starr, which will be rescheduled.
Our audiences and supporters, not to mention the composer and librettist, deserve the best of circumstances in which to honor the three-year development process for The Many Deaths of Laila Starr. In an effort to center our shared interest in mounting a significant world premiere, MN Opera proposed a temporary no-strike/no-lockout agreement to the orchestra union, which would have guaranteed retroactive increases to the compensation orchestra musicians would otherwise normally receive, keeping the production moving forward while negotiations continue. The union rejected this proposal, which would have been a win for the orchestra, a win for the company, and importantly, a win for a world premiere opera.
Mounting a world premiere is always challenging under normal circumstances, but it is a process in which our creative workforce thrives. However, conducting rehearsals and preparations for this beautiful new work while under threat of strike by the orchestra union is not a healthy space that allows artists to unlock their best performances.
MN Opera cannot responsibly place these artists and creative teams in a position where, after months and years of preparation, they could be standing behind the curtain, ready to share their talents on stage, only to learn that critical members of their team will not perform. Despite the Union’s repeated public expressions of commitment to this production, its unwillingness to provide a formal assurance against a work stoppage leaves that possibility unresolved.
MN Opera believes that the artists, audiences, and extraordinary creative visionaries behind The Many Deaths of Laila Starr deserve greater certainty and respect than pushing through under threat of a strike.
MN Opera has approached these negotiations with a sincere commitment to reaching a fair and sustainable agreement, as demonstrated below:
- Early and sustained engagement: MN Opera has sought to schedule bargaining sessions since May 2025, recognizing the orchestra’s critical role in the organization, our season, and this historic world premiere. MN Opera offered 62 possible meeting dates between February and September of 2026. The union agreed to five of those dates, not agreeing to meet until May 15, 2026.
- Repeated efforts to reach agreement: MN Opera has presented five separate economic proposals throughout negotiations. Each has been met with either surface or regressive counterproposals – often only after several requests – including the union’s most recent proposal for guaranteed services, which management has consistently explained is an unsustainable non-starter. This has created further delays and illustrates the insincere efforts of the union’s negotiating team. This led MN Opera to reluctantly file an Unfair Labor Practice charge against the union, which is pending with the National Labor Relations Board.
- Offering significant and meaningful investments: MN Opera’s latest proposal includes a 14% increase in scale-rate compensation over a two-year agreement, significant increases in over-scale rates for titled positions, and a fundraising commitment to new stand lights (estimated cost of $50,000) specifically selected by our orchestra musicians.
- A commitment to live music and our orchestra musicians: For more than 60 years, this company has invested in its partnership with the MN Opera Orchestra. That commitment is reflected in decades of collective bargaining, ratified agreements, and established practices that recognize the essential role of our musicians, including prohibiting music replacement technologies.
MN Opera places a high value on the work of every artist and employee who contributes to our work, the audiences who place their trust and resources in us, and its long-term artistic and financial health. Any suggestion that MN Opera does not value the extraordinary talent, contributions, and dedication of its orchestra musicians is unequivocally false. However, proceeding without reasonable assurances of performance continuity exposes its community and artists to significant uncertainty, emotional strain, and financial risk.
To everyone who purchased a ticket, made a donation, became a Friend of Laila Starr, or otherwise supported this remarkable production, we are immeasurably grateful. Your belief in this work and in MN Opera’s vision to sing every story has made its development possible. Refunds, exchanges, future application of ticket cost, and donations will be accepted.
We are determined to bring this remarkable work to audiences in the future under circumstances that honor its creative ambition and the people responsible for realizing it. In the meantime, we will be paying all our artists, including orchestra musicians, their full fees for these performances as originally contracted.
OVERVIEW OF CURRENT NEGOTIATIONS
This is an incredibly complex time for the performing arts. Subscriptions have fallen sharply across every art form at a time when foundation and corporate funding has grown scarce, even while costs have risen significantly. Minnesota Opera and arts organizations across the country are being forced to rebuild audiences and support with constricted resources.
While inflationary expense growth has outpaced revenue growth in the arts for decades, it has recently skyrocketed. The expenses of producing opera – from steel, lumber, and shipping, to printing, housing, and labor – have driven local costs up more than 54% in the last 10 years, resulting in a growing annual structural imbalance.
To manage declining revenue and increasing costs, MN Opera reduced its season from five productions to three and articulated a strategic objective of preserving a three-opera mainstage season at the Ordway as the foundation of our public offerings through fiscal year 2028. While still exploring other performance options, this mainstage baseline is a responsible reaction to market forces driving difficult decisions to maintain a sustainable organization. In short, we are adjusting to the economic reality we face, which unfortunately continues to conflict with where we strive to be.
The reduction of the number of opera productions in MN Opera’s season impacts our entire creative workforce, most of whom are Minnesotans. The orchestra is one of many essential components in MN Opera’s fully staged opera productions. Everyone is impacted – from singers, visual artists, and craftspeople to the instrumentalists in our orchestra; and it would be financially irresponsible and contrary to MN Opera’s values to privilege one part of our creative workforce with unsustainable increases in pay to the detriment of the rest of the workforce.
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