The lone union to continue the walkouts that disrupted the Opera national de Paris this fall has finally suspended its labor action, and all productions at the company will take place as planned through the first week of the New Year.

According to the television channel France 2, the FSU, which represents a small number of backstage workers at the Opйra-Bastille (the newer of the company's two houses), finally suspended its strike threat, effective through January 7, in a letter to the company's administration this week.

The walkouts earlier this fall were staged all over France by labor unions protesting the Sarkozy government's proposed overhaul of their various specialized pension plans. In mid-November, after a series of cancelled performances that cost the Opйra more than €2 million, most of those unions called off their strikes. Operations at the historic Palais Garnier returned to normal, but an ongoing walkout by the unions FSU and SUD (which returned to work in early December) disrupted performances at the Bastille: several performances of the Opera Ballet's Nutcracker were cancelled, with one being given in rehearsal clothes, and Tosca was presented in a concert staging.

More embarrassingly, a new Robert Carsen production of Tannhauser, conducted by Seiji Ozawa and promoted as one of the major events of the season, received its first three performances without scenery; only last weekend was the staging seen as intended. (Carsen, alas, was booed and whistled by part of the audience, though mezzo Beatrice Uria-Monzon, who played Venus, received cheers, as did Ozawa and the orchestra.)

Even though no one is currently on strike at the Opera de Paris, the company's general director, Gerard Mortier, told Agence France-Presse today that "nevertheless I remain worried and vigilant, because the strike could begin again after January 7."

By Matthew Westphal