Culture minister promises support for Greece's National Opera
Culture Minister Constantinos Tasoulas on Monday offered assurances that the state will save Greece's National Opera "because it is worth saving," during a press conference presenting the opera's programme for the coming season.
"The state will assist so that the Opera will not stumble on the steady, upward course that it has taken and which is being embraced by more and more people. The main criterion for the state to support a body is its performance, its usefulness, it is not anything more or less than the previous year.
This must be understood by the managements of agencies. The Opera has such a management, which has anticipated us and naturally cannot be ignored," he said.
National Opera President Athanassios Theodoropoulos, on his part, had stressed that the Opera was facing irreversible damage as a result of funding cuts exceeding 35 pct in the last two years. "It must be understood that without permanent bodies, an orchestra and a ballet, the opera cannot exist. Therefore, the state must provide to cover the inelastic costs of the Organisation," he said, adding that the management was doing whatever possible to curtail production costs.
