…a modern democracy—the Socialist Party’s Michelle Bachelet, elected last year, is the country’s first female president—but its recent history is notorious. Rodríguez’s free hand in running the theatre during the long political night has much to do with the fact that it is the Teatro Municipal, and that he has always been answerable to Santiago’s mayor. With little state interference, there was never any pressure on artists (the communist or at least communist-leaning Roberto Abbado, for instance, was music director during part of the Pinochet era), and singers who were nervous of working in Chile generally found themselves falling under the spell of the theatre and its friendly atmosphere, and becoming regular guests. Even now, it’s accepted among artists and their agents that low fees paid by Santiago are more than compensated for by good working conditions, which is why the Teatro Municipal still succeeds in attracting top-level casts (‘B’ casts, made up mostly of Chilean singers, are a feature too, for reasons both of nurturing local talent and providing covers at a house where last-minute replacements cannot easily be flown in).

Only around one-sixth of a total budget of approximately £10 million comes from central government. Overall funding is 50 per cent private (box office and sponsorship) and 50 per cent public (of which roughly two-thirds comes from the municipality and the city’s richer neighbourhoods). This is still not a lot of money on which to run opera, a professional chorus, orchestra and internationally renowned ballet company—a total of 400 people are employed by the theatre. The Teatro Municipal is the only institution in the country to boast both a classic and contemporary dance company, and also its only real opera company (other theatres in Chile receive performances, including on occasion from the Municipal, but lack company infrastructure).

The largely happy atmosphere was disrupted last year with major upheavals surrounding the Santiago Philharmonic Orchestra: many of its 100 players had been under-utilized, some taking up to an incredible 100 days of holiday per annum, and when the quietly diplomatic Rodríguez tackled the issue the unions pushed very hard and very publicly. The orchestra went on strike one minute before curtain-up on Otello, with the audience already seated. Elektra became The Turn of the Screw at only a few days’ notice, and when new contracts were finally negotiated only about half the old orchestra remained. Reforming the orchestra is one of the challenges relished by Jan Latham-Koenig, appointed late last year as music director. Latham-Koenig, who has conducted in Santiago regularly since doing a Don Giovanni there in 1989, is delighted to be working with a young orchestra, and plans (in addition to operas and orchestral concerts) a chamber music programme for those players not involved in the major work of the moment.

Despite this hitch, the Municipal enjoys a stability that makes it better able to do…

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