People, get ready...

A comment posted last week by SFO General Director David Gockley on this article in the Huffington Post:

“Michael Kaiser should be granted honorary membership in all the performing arts unions!

To say that raising more contributi­ons is the cure for ailing performing arts organizati­ons is like telling mayors and governors across the country to simply raise taxes to close budgetary gaps. If there are problems, dump them on to the public! For San Francisco Opera the public consists of ticket buyers who are paying prices that are already too high and contributo­rs who are unbelievab­ly numerous and generous. Still, we have a serious, and perhaps fatal, imbalance.

In the performing arts, costs have continued to grow faster than income, and generous union contracts are one of the reasons for this. Raising more money is only part of the solution. Labor must assume its share of the burden. -- David Gockley, San Francisco Opera General Director”

"A serious, and perhaps fatal, imbalance"?

Whoa.

In yesterday's Chronicle, Josh Kosman had this.

Last November, when Gockley first wrote about the situation in the program for The Makropoulos Affair, I wrote this.