In a further blow to the struggling English National Opera, whose artistic director Seán Doran was sacked last week, staff are holding a ballot on whether to strike.
Members of Bectu, the union that represents most theatre workers except performers, are threatening to strike over pay and conditions. ENO saw its last strike as recently as 2003 - a protest over redundancies by choristers, who staged an emotional performance of Verdi's Requiem while forcing a performance of Berg's Lulu at the Coliseum to be abandoned.
Bectu official Willy Donaghy said: "ENO's offer is hopelessly inadequate and staff's reaction has been firm in wanting a better deal. The last time members were balloted the outcome was 97% in favour of industrial action, and we expect the result of this ballot to be similar." Voting closes on December 28.
The move comes against a background of unrest within ENO in the wake of Mr Doran's sacking and the appointment, without due process, of John Berry and Loretta Tomasi as artistic director and chief executive respectively.
According to one opera director: "The chorus and orchestra have really rumbled it this time. They know they deserve better. They are going around saying, 'Kevin Spacey runs the Old Vic theatre, Antonio Pappano runs Covent Garden, Nicholas Hytner runs the National Theatre ... and who runs ENO?' "
The mood at ENO was described as "increasingly angry and mutinous", and a vote of no confidence in the chairman of the board, Martin Smith, is understood to be being planned.
Mr Smith, who was also responsible for the deposing of Nicholas Payne in 2002, had staked his reputation on the success of Mr Doran and the financial health of ENO after it was given an £11m bailout by Arts Council England, awarded in 2003. Mr Smith's fellow board directors are becoming increasingly restive, with vice-chairman Vernon Ellis, who is also chairman of management consultancy Accenture, said to be positioning himself for a boardroom putsch.
