For two years, Ópera de Colombia has owed money to singers, assistants, and makeup artists.

Led by director René Coronado, the company owes salaries to many artists from 2022; many artists owed money have publicly noted that they have yet to receive any response from the director.

In an interview with W Radio back in May, tenor Julián Henao González said, “René lied to us. He took us to Colombia with lies, he told us that everything was fine. He asked us to pay for the travel tickets and told us that when we arrived in Colombia, he would reimburse us.”

He added, “We trusted René because we had already worked on that production with the Teatro Mayor Julio Mario Santo Domingo in 2022. With this trust, we went to Medellín with the Colombian Opera. I feel that when we try to talk to René there is always an excuse that involves third parties and in the end he never responds.”

According to W Radio, set designer Henry Alarcón is owed 30 million pesos, which is equivalent to 7,567.14 US dollars (per the conversion rate in May 2024), and an anonymous assistant is owed 12 million pesos, equivalent to 3026.85 US dollars. According to a source who spoke to OperaWire, an estimated total of 180 million pesos, or 45,402.82 US dollars, is owed to artists.

In a statement, Coronado said, “Between 2020 and 2023 we experienced a difficult financial situation that forced us to breach payment commitments with several suppliers, including contracted artistic and production personnel, for the development of our activities. The administrative management of the entity since last November has been dedicated to advancing conciliations and payment agreements with our creditors, who are contacted by the lawyer Roberto Carlos González, who on our behalf recognizes the debt and establishes payment dates according to the agreement. with the cash flow strategy that the entity can commit to in this regard.”