Opera Director Discusses Talks for Carmen Musicians

The General Director of the Kentucky Opera is restating his promise to have live musicians for next month's performances of Carmen.The opera uses musicians from the Louisville Orchestra, but the orchestra has no contract with its players. Concerts for September and October have been canceled. Some musicians who perform outside of the orchestra as Keep Louisville Symphonic have offered to accompany the opera, but General Director David Roth says talks with KLS would be improper."While negotiations continue between the Louisville Orchestra and its musicians, it would be inappropriate and presumptuous for Kentucky Opera to negotiate with any other organized group of musicians. As such, we will have to contract our own orchestra for the upcoming services of Carmen," he said in an e-mail to WFPL News, later adding "Our contract will be with the AFM local here in Louisville and we will abide by their rules and regulations for contracting musicians for our services."Roth has promised to have live musicians in the pit for the performances, which begin on the 23rd. He tells WFPL he's confident the opera will have its own contracted orchestra will members of the local chapter of the union. He says canceling Carmen is "not even a remote possibility."