Opera Says Pickets Won’t Stop Horne Performance

The performance of mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne will go on as scheduled Saturday despite apparent commitments from electricians and stagehands to honor a picket line by disaffected wig makers and makeup artists, the San Diego Opera Company said Tuesday. But if orchestra musicians refuse to cross the picket line, the following weekend’s production of “Madama Butterfly” may be in jeopardy.

“We are not going to cancel the Horne recital,” opera spokeswoman Brenda Hughes said. “No matter what happens, we will do it. There are ways we can do it with or without a backstage crew.”

The picket line outside the Civic Theatre by the International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees Local 706, wig makers and makeup artists, will be honored by stagehands and electricians for its duration, said William McLure of IATSE Local 122, stagehands and electricians.

Members of the stagehands local are responsible for raising the curtain, moving the piano on stage and operating the theater’s lights.

“They need a crew to set (the recital) up, of course,” said McLure, business manager of Local 122. “As long as those pickets from hair and makeup are there, we’re going to honor them. We’re not going halfway. It is indeed a bona fide picket line. . . . In our contract with the opera, there is a clause that allows us to honor pickets of this nature. We know we’re doing the right thing.”

Joe Pallazola, president of Local 325, American Federation of Musicians, said it is up to the discretion of individual opera musicians whether or not to honor the picket lines, but added “We think they will.”

This weekend’s performance by Horne requires only piano accompaniment while “Madama Butterly” requires a full orchestra. The first orchestra rehearsal for “Madama Butterfly” is scheduled for Friday.

The wig makers and make-up artists, who began picketing Monday, are protesting the withdrawal Dec. 15 of contracts for the 1989 season. An unfair-labor-practices petition has been filed with the National Labor Relations Board.

McLure and Howard Smit, business manager of the wig makers and makeup artists local, met Monday with Gregory Hirsch, the opera’s director of productions, and said they were close to an agreement before the talks disintegrated.

Because stagehands refused to cross the picket line Monday, the opera could not unload the scenery for its production of “Madama Butterfly,” scheduled to open April 15.

On Tuesday, members of Local 905, wardrobe attendants, also refused to cross the picket line to do costume work for “Madama Butterfly.” A spokesman for Local 325 of the American Federation of Musicians said his union was studying whether it would also honor the picket line for Friday’s first “Madama Butterfly” rehearsal with the orchestra.

“If all those people are going to honor it, it’s a big problem for the opera,” the spokesman said.