Mayor Daniel Lurie, pictured here in May, and Matthew Goudeau, the city’s executive director of arts and culture, became involved in San Francisco Opera strike negotiations after the orchestra walked out Sept. 12.
Giselle Garza Lerma/S.F. Chronicle
The San Francisco Opera’s orchestra strike ended after nearly a week of canceled performances and increasingly urgent negotiations, with Mayor Daniel Lurie and his new arts chief playing a role in bringing the two sides together.
The city did not negotiate the contract, but beginning the night the orchestra musicians held a demonstration outside of the War Memorial Opera House — on Saturday, Sept. 12, which was to be the company’s season opening night — Lurie and Matthew Goudeau, the city’s first executive director of arts and culture, joined the process as facilitators, urging the Opera and its musicians to stay at the table.
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Calling off the free Opera in the Park concert in Golden Gate Park the next day was the turning point.
“The cancellation of Opera in the Park was a real wake-up call for us, for the mayor, especially,” Goudeau told the Chronicle. “When free art disappears, especially at a time when the cost of living is so high, that matters. It matters to the audiences, it matters to the artists and workers, and the restaurants and businesses who all benefit from that.”
Goudeau said the mayor wanted to see what the city could do to bring the Opera and orchestra back together, particularly because it appeared to city officials that the two sides were not moving toward a resolution quickly enough.
The effort, the Opera announced Thursday. Sept. 17, ultimately produced a tentative four-year agreement, which spans from Aug. 1 through July 31, 2030. Details of the new contract, and any compromises, are to remain under a confidentiality agreement, said Gabriel Young, associate principal oboist and chair of the orchestra negotiating committee.
The Opera’s 2026-27 season will now resume Tuesday, Sept. 22, with the first performance of Verdi’s “Simon Boccanegra.” The premiere of Thea Musgrave’s “Mary, Queen of Scots” is now scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 24.
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There are no current plans to restage Opera in the Park, although Young said a community event is being planned for Saturday, Sept. 19, at the Opera House.
The mayor was a convenor, not a mediator
The San Francisco Opera Orchestra went on strike Sept. 12, saying musicians would not perform opening night without a new contract.
Tony Bravo/S.F. Chronicle
The first extended bargaining session involving the city took place Sunday at City Hall, Goudeau said.
Lurie was not there to decide the terms of the contract. An independent mediator remained involved.
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“The mayor wasn’t the mediator,” Goudeau said. “I would describe him as the convenor.”
The talks took place in the mayor’s conference room at City Hall, with the two sides breaking into separate meetings at various points.
“When any strike happens, it’s easy for both parties to go to their separate places and for dialogue to break down,” Opera General Manager Matthew Shilvock told the Chronicle. “What I really appreciate about the way that the mayor brought both parties together within 18 hours of the strike happening was that the dialogue could continue. The mayor and Matthew Goudeau created the space, they created the framework, they created the urgency for both sides to keep talking and to get it done.”
While the mayor has previously intervened the historic 93-day hotel workers strike in December 2024, helping broker a deal before in office, and in a San Francisco Unified School District teachers’ strike in February, it was the first time he has step in to assist with an arts organization’s labor dispute.
Goudeau said his own role was to represent the city’s interests rather than advocate for management or the musicians.
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“I was there as a reminder of the significant investment that the city makes in the San Francisco Opera,” he said.
But beyond just wanting to prevent a labor strike, he added, “We don’t want to have artists not working. We don’t want to have performances not happening.”
Indeed, Young told the Chronicle the presence of both officials was helpful, as they took time “to understand on such a granular and nuanced level, not just the way our contract works, but some of the specific dynamics that have been taking shape at the Opera House over a number of years.”
That meant trying to hold two competing realities at the same time: The musicians need to be able to make a living in San Francisco, while the institution that employs them needs to remain financially sustainable.
“Art doesn’t happen without artists,” Goudeau said. “If we want San Francisco to remain one of the great cultural cities in the world, artists and cultural workers have to be able to make a living and make a life here, and afford it.
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“At the same time, the institutions that employ them have to be sustainable. We need both.”
Why did the city get involved?
Matthew Goudeau, San Francisco’s executive director of arts and culture, pictured here in July, and Mayor Daniel Lurie became involved in San Francisco Opera strike negotiations after the orchestra walked out Sept. 12.
Giselle Garza Lerma/For the S.F. Chronicle
San Francisco has more at stake in the Opera than a canceled performance.
The War Memorial Opera House is city-owned, and the city spends money maintaining and improving it. Goudeau pointed to a new roof being installed as an example of the city’s continuing capital investment.
“The city has to look after its investment,” Goudeau said.
The War Memorial complex also includes Davies Symphony Hall and Herbst Theatre. Goudeau described the entire complex as an economic driver for artists, backstage workers, neighborhood businesses and others whose work depends on audiences.
“When the Opera House is dark, that’s not a good use of the city’s investment,” he said.
Lurie made a similar case Thursday night.
“San Francisco invests in the War Memorial and Performing Arts Center so it can be filled with the arts and culture that are driving our recovery,” he said at a dinner honoring curator Renee Dreyfus at the de Young Museum. “Performances at the Opera House support artists and staff, draw residents and visitors to small businesses in Hayes Valley, and bring people together to enjoy amazing music.”
The strike prompted a bigger question
Following a strike, the San Francisco Opera’s 2026-27 season will now resume Tuesday, Sept. 22, with the first performance of Verdi’s “Simon Boccanegra.”
Aidin Vaziri/S.F. Chronicle
Goudeau said the experience left him wondering whether San Francisco is getting the most possible artistic and public benefit from the Opera House and other city-owned cultural facilities.
“Should we be asking whether there are more opportunities for art, and more opportunity for artists, and more opportunities for people to experience them?” he said.
That could mean more use by the Opera or its regular performing arts tenants.
“Are there others who can perform in the Opera House? Does it only have to be the Opera or the (San Francisco) Ballet?” he said. “We have a lot of great arts and cultural organizations in San Francisco who would love the privilege of being able to perform in our beautiful Opera House.”
He also mentioned touring productions and other performing arts groups as potential users.
But Goudeau added the city has no predetermined plan, and any future changes would need to be worked out with the Opera and other organizations.
A labor dispute decades in the making
The San Francisco Opera’s 2026-27 season will now resume Tuesday, Sept. 22, with the first performance of Verdi’s “Simon Boccanegra” after the Orchestra’s strike, which begun on Sept. 12.
Manuel Orbegozo/For the S.F. Chronicle
The mayor entered a dispute that had been building for months.
The orchestra’s previous contract expired July 31, after negotiations that began in May. Musicians warned in late August that they would not perform opening night without a new agreement.
On Sept. 12, after hours of bargaining, the musicians walked out less than an hour before the scheduled curtain for “Simon Boccanegra.” (At the Opera’s 2024 season gala, the performance started late after the orchestra and management averted a strike with a last-minute agreement.)
The Opera then canceled Opera in the Park, sponsored by the Chronicle and scheduled for Sept. 13, and three additional performances — including the premiere of “Mary, Queen of Scots” — through Sunday, Sept. 20.
At the center of the dispute was a disagreement over pay, guaranteed work and the institution’s finances.
The Opera says it has a structural deficit of about $15 million a year and that its existing orchestra agreement guarantees more work than the company can economically provide. It estimated that 33% of the orchestra’s guaranteed hours will go unused this season, equivalent to roughly $1.9 million to $2.5 million in wages.
The musicians argued that the company’s proposed changes would amount to a pay cut when inflation and reduced guaranteed work were taken into account.
Management maintained, however, that its proposal would increase wage rates while gradually changing the amount of guaranteed work so musicians’ seasonal compensation would not decline.
Goudeau said the city did not attempt to settle those underlying issues itself.
“Both sides had good points,” he said. “There are bigger, multigenerational, 50 years of history that I think they were trying to resolve in one contract.”
What role did the city play in the final agreement?
San Francisco Opera Music Director Eun Sun Kim and the cast of Verdi’s “Rigoletto” bow on opening night in September 2025.
Ando Caulfield/Drew Altizer Photography
Details of the new contract and any concessions made have not yet been released. Goudeau said Lurie and the city did not determine the contract’s terms, and explained the mayor’s position was, “It’s up to them to work out the specifics and to get what they needed to get out of the contract.”
But both sides ultimately credited the city’s involvement, with Young particularly stating the musicians were “heartened” to reach a tentative agreement.
“I think it was a really good balance between the needs of both parties in the contract that we ended up with,” Shilvock said.
The agreement covers four years, through July 31, 2030, and remains subject to ratification.
A new role for the city’s arts chief
Goudeau has been San Francisco’s executive director of arts and culture only since June. His job oversees the Arts Commission, Grants for the Arts and Film SF.
The Opera strike was his first major labor crisis involving a city cultural institution, and he’s said the experience has already shaped how he views the work ahead, inspiring him to ponder the larger issues of arts economics.
That includes questions about the city’s broader approach to arts funding.
“You have to begin with the art. You have to begin with the artist, and you have to begin with the support for the art and the artist,” he said. “And then things flow from there.”
He added that he is also thinking about how the city’s growing private wealth, particularly from the technology sector, can be connected to its cultural institutions.
“How do we inspire the people in the city who are becoming more and more wealthy (with) every IPO to understand the value of art and culture,” Goudeau said.