It’s difficult to keep up with the passage of time; typing the year 2023 feels like a science fiction exercise! Remarkable as it may seem, we are approaching the third anniversary of the onset of the COVID pandemic and the seismic changes it engendered — changes to every aspect of the creation, production, and enjoyment of art. Even as we hunger for a year of calmer progress, we know that uncertainty will continue to define the immediate future.

The Great Resignation has challenged every sector — including opera — to recruit and retain talented staff who can manage, innovate, and lead. I continue to hear across my travels and from our continuing member Zoom meetings that companies struggled through fall seasons with numerous open positions and constant recruitment for new staff at every level of all departments. But recent conversations have been particularly revealing.

The general director of a major company shared with me that his company was searching for a senior-level position at what seems to be a very generous salary. In his city, however, he’s competing with the for-profit sector, which offers stock options, bonuses, and profit sharing, as well as the opportunity to work in facilities that feature food courts, health clubs, and other amenities that are unimaginable in an opera context. In a recent visit to a healthy mid-sized company, a roundtable discussion with staff revealed that the most common issues among them were containing their hours, rationalizing their workflow, and managing remote work.

OPERA America’s most recent comprehensive Human Resources Survey was revealing. More than one-third of OPERA America’s Professional Company Members do not offer health insurance plans for employees. More than two-thirds do not offer any kind of retirement plan. With nonprofit arts salaries as the basis, how can young people with a desire to build careers in opera take care of themselves? Do they work without health insurance? Do they delay long-term savings until later in their lives, despite the advice from investment pundits to begin saving for retirement while young? Regrettably, their answer all too often is to find work in another field. And let’s not forget, artists in our field work under the same conditions, although they don’t even enjoy the benefit of paid vacations and holidays. These and other topics about the human dimension of opera will be at the center of discussion at Opera Conference 2023; join the conversation in Pittsburgh this May.

The Great Resignation has been a tremendous equalizer across American industry. How the opera field recovers from it will require improved conditions that contribute to retention and fulfillment in the workplace. Over the last years of the pandemic, artists and arts workers have been first responders who provided solace and inspiration during long days of isolation. Let’s reward them by working to eliminate the expectation that a life in the arts requires unsustainable sacrifice.