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Video Broadcast Operatic Claims Runtime 1:56 Real Media 56k | Broadband Windows Media Player 56k | Broadband Quicktime 56k | Broadband

The show must go on for the San Francisco Opera despite a mild rash of claims, which includes a whopping $70,000 fine from the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration (CAL-OSHA).

Established in 1923, the company has performed everything from La Boheme to The Dangerous Liaisons and is currently the second largest opera company in North America. But behind the scenes producing a live stage show on the San Francisco Opera’s grand scale creates its own unique dangerous liaisons.

The maximum $70,000 fine was levied on the opera after a stagehand fell 22 feet from a hydraulic lift that tipped over.

The Opera has been cited at least 12 times since 1996, but the latest was considered a willful serious violation because stabilizing safety devices were intentionally removed from the lift.

Even chorus members aren’t out of harms way in the Opera House. There have even been several instances where chorus members have been choked up from stage smoke and fog, which has sparked its fair share of workers’ compensation claims.

With each claim, the opera has made adjustments to minimize future claims. Throughout the 70 years the company has operated in the War Memorial Opera House, the stagehand’s fall was the most sever accident.

The company isn’t satisfied with its record and wants to better, which is why a safety consultant was retained earlier this year to ensure that claims don’t intermingle with the onstage drama and poison the poetic lyrics uttered by the cast.