Flexibility of strategic choices in an opera house management

This paper addresses key issues of an opera house management, with the special emphasis on flexibility of strategic management choices. In the first part, we describe several reforms in opera houses managements carried out in different countries with the aim of transformation from structural rigidity to managerial flexibility. The second part provides a theoretical discussion on strategic options available for managers of opera companies. We suggest four categories of strategic choices to be considered by an opera house management, namely artistic, economic, marketing and social objectives. In the last part, we present results of the research conducted in three Slovak opera organisations. The flexibility of their strategic management choices was analysed during the research period 2002 to 2004.