It has emerged that the board of Scottish Opera is considering reducing the contracts of the company's orchestra members to just 26 weeks a year.

Financial troubles at the company began in 2004, with an artistically acclaimed but financially ruinous Ring cycle. As part of the financial restructuring required in the aftermath, the company's entire chorus was laid off.

Now the orchestra is apparently under threat. In a letter to the company's board, members of the orchestra wrote this week that if the planned cuts went ahead: "We?would be very much a poor cousin to our counterparts in England and Wales, each of whom has a full-time orchestra and chorus...Doing something to save money when it destroys the very product that you are trying to create is absolutely self-defeating."