The Palace of the Arts he was about to close 2022 in red numbers. The energy crisis and rising prices last year multiplied by four the electricity bill paid by the Valencian opera for the daily operation of the building designed by Santiago Calatrava. To this must be added the expense that the cleaning and improvement of its roof had entailed for the auditorium, which exceeded one million euros. Between one thing and another, the Les Arts box arrived in December with a deficit of about 800,000 euros.
But a work written at the end of the 19th century by Giacomo Puccini, Bohemian, He came out last minute to the rescue of the auditorium. The production premiered on December 9, devised by Davide Livermore and musically directed by James Gaffigan, it has become the highest-grossing in the history of Les Arts. After six performances the tragic love story between Rodolfo and Mimì has raised 880,000 euros and it has ousted Verdi’s ‘Nabucco’ with which Plácido Domingo said goodbye (without him knowing it yet) to the Valencian opera.
Until now, that 2019 production was listed as the most successful in the 17-year history of the operatic palace, since it had raised 820,000 euros. Why is it? ‘Nabucco’ There were also six performances but the price of subscriptions was higher and there was no flat rate of 10 euros for young people, as the manager of Les Arts, Jorge Culla, highlighted yesterday. Furthermore, this ‘Bohème’ is an in-house production that has been staged on previous occasions, so the benefit for the audience is even greater.
More investment from the ministry
The President of the Palau de les Arts Foundation, Pablo Font de Mora, Yesterday he wanted to add to the good news of a balanced economic result another one also related to the numbers of the Valencian opera. The approval at the end of December of the general State budget for 2023 confirmed that the Ministry of Culture will invest one million more in Les Arts than had been foreseen in the draft accounts presented in October.
In this way, and after having accepted an amendment to the Budget Law presented by the Compromís deputy, Joan Baldoví, the department directed by Miquel Iceta has gone from the 1.5 million euros contemplated when he made public his investment project for the Valencian opera, to the final 2.5 million.
This places Les Arts for the first time on the same step as the opera at the Maestranza in Seville in what refers to ministerial contribution, although the Andalusian theater adds other items granted by the Government for being state-owned. The Teatro Real in Madrid, which obtains 12.1 million in investment, and the Liceu in Barcelona, which achieves 7.2 million, are still far behind.
It is, in any case, a “cheating” increase since the ministry’s investment in 2022 had been 2 million euros and it lowered it to 1.5 million in the draft for 2023. Thus, the increase from one year to the next has not been one million but 500,000 euros.
Relative or not, this new rise in the State’s contribution to Les Arts confirms the change in attitude of the ministry towards the Valencian audience. In 2019 and 2020 Culture’s investment was 600,000 euros, an item that increased to one million in 2021 and up to 2 million in 2022. In this past year, the initial investment was also one million euros but Compromís managed to add an amendment to the Law of Budgets to increase the item. It is the same that has happened in the 2023 budget until leaving the investment at 2.5 million euros. The increase in the last five years has thus been 317 percent.
very positive spin
Font de Mora highly valued the change given by the Ministry of Culture to its relationship with Les Arts, which he attributed to three reasons. «The first -she said yesterday-, at the entrance of the ministry in December 2021 in the management of Les Arts becoming part of her Board of Trustees and Executive Committee. Secondly, due to the efficient and transparent management of the accounts. And thirdly because Les Arts has once again placed itself at the top level within the international circuit of the great opera houses, its season being comparable to that of any great European or North American theater. We are currently the main cultural center of the Valencian Community».
Font de Mora also thanked “the excellent management” of the Ministry of Culture to achieve this increase in the ministry in the budget, “since without the help of Raquel Tamarit and Joan Baldoví it would have been unthinkable to be at the current 2.5 million euros endowment.”
In any case, it should be remembered that the Palau de les Arts is an entity of autonomous ownership, with what continues to be the Generalitat, through the Ministry of Culture, which contributes most of the budget for Valencian opera: of the 32 million euros of this year, 20.65 million come from the Generalitat and 2.5 million from the Government.