Opera Zuid has sent the alarming message below out into the world. Klassiek Centraal stands behind Opera Zuid's defensive positions.

"Opera Zuid structurally needs more room to maneuver to fulfill its role as a fully-fledged opera company".

Council for Culture

Opera Zuid risks disappearing due to a serious lack of funding. It is with dismay that our company has received the minister's allocation letter for the coming period 2025-2028. In this allocation, the minister ignores the call from the Council for Culture to "actively support Opera Zuid with additional financing options, so that a viable solution is found for the institution". The subsidy amount requested by Opera Zuid was €3,500,000, while €1,888,300 will be granted.

The Council furthermore states that "Opera Zuid structurally needs more room to maneuver to fulfill its role as a fully-fledged opera company, which also serves as the only opera provision in the South region".. While the Council describes the company as "indispensable" and "exemplary", the ministerial allocation amounts to an inescapable death sentence for Opera Zuid.

The minister's allocation places our company under obligations that are impossible to fulfill with the allocated resources. Because we cannot and must not cut further. The Council for Culture states that Opera Zuid's activity program "forms the minimal basis for a fully-fledged opera company in the region, especially since Opera Zuid also has a task regarding the regional distribution of opera [...] with even fewer productions and shorter tours, the institution cannot continue to fulfill its basic function".

The minister does not act on the above, and the consequences are disastrous and irreparable: the fragile and invaluable connection that Opera Zuid has been able to build between opera and social domains such as care, prevention and welfare, self-reliance, education and inclusion, will be destroyed. Exemplary projects such as our Neighborhood Opera (which was literally put in the spotlight by the Berenschot report, commissioned by the Second Chamber), will irreversibly perish. The value of our company is not only about opera but also about its impact on people and society.

Furthermore, this allocation undermines our entrepreneurship: not only is our revenue model (audience revenues, sponsors and donors) disrupted, but also the carefully built relationships with co-producers and partners, regionally, nationally and internationally. Due to the minister's allocation, Opera Zuid is further at risk because without the necessary additional resources, we cannot meet our obligations and agreements with our regional and local authorities.

Without intervention from the Second Chamber during the culture debate on November 11 this year, Opera Zuid will cease to exist.

Opera Zuid Season 2024-2025

• Bluebeard's Castle – Béla Bartók | November 1-10, 2024, co-production with Philzuid
• Gold! – Leonard Evers | October 8 - November 15, 2024, co-production with Dutch National Opera
• The Four Note Opera – Tom Johnson | November 12-28, 2024, co-production with Dutch National Opera and Dutch Traveling Opera
• Neighborhood Opera Malpertuis – Hartwerk, December 2024
• Le Villi – Giacomo Puccini | May 18 - June 19, 2025, in collaboration with Philzuid