Protest at Rome Opera may mar Rigoletto first night

(ANSA) Rome, October 21 - Musicians planned to read an outraged protest note to their audience of opera buffs during the first night performance of Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto at the Rome Opera House Tuesday to underline opposition to the mass firing of all the theatre's 182 orchestra and choir members, trade union officials said.
    Earlier 20 musicians held an angry sit-in outside the troubled opera house as the personnel manager, Stefano Bottaro, met with leaders from a constellation of as many as seven different trade unions and rejected a request to rescind the sackings in return for a discussion over productivity levels and costs.
    The artistes taking part in the sit-in said they were disappointed with the management decision but that they would perform the first night show. The demonstrators all wore white t-shirts decorated with a black musical note. One representative from the Rsa Cgil union, a choir member, Pasquale Fallaci, said he had been sacked on the spot for speaking to the press about the thorny dispute. However the Opera management strongly rejected the charge, claiming the singer was fired for fraudulently stamping his wife's employment card when she was absent from work at the Caracalla Baths open air opera theatre where summer performances are staged traditionally each year amid Roman ruins.
    "I was fired twice," Fallaci said, "once as an artiste of the choir and another as a union representative. The company accused me of having made critical declarations about its work during my legitimate union activity".
    Fallaci claimed that the opera house management had concocted the story of a fraudulent clock stamping since his wife is the sister of a former superintendent of the theatre whose record managers want to besmirch.
    "I have proudly been critical of this management, that I believe is leading the theatre to bankruptcy," added Fallaci, "the firing was retaliation for my union activity".
    The opera house's board of directors was due to meet Wednesday to hear a report about the union-management talks that were due to resume on Friday.
    Opera Superintendant Carlo Fuortes did not attend the tense talks with the union shop stewards Tuesday, union sources said.