Mr Jeffes said the loss of the vast proportion of the company's ticket income for 2020,caused by the coronavirus pandemic,had been devastating.
The loss for the year would run in the"multi-millions".
"We cannot let it become a crisis threatening the very existence of Opera Australia by failing to respond to the world we now live in,"he wrote."To continue to serve our purpose in enriching Australia’s cultural life,as well as maintaining the artistic excellence we are so proud of,we need to make responsible decisions now."
Key among the decisions is an organisational restructure to"unlock efficiencies",reduce overall costs and better align the organisation to the changing environment of COVID-19 with a new operating model. Redundancies are envisaged but it is hoped they will be limited.
Opera Australia is putting its warehouse in Alexandria on the market.
"Put simply,we cannot rely on going back to what we all knew as ‘business as usual’ any time soon,"Mr Jeffes said.
Opera Australia has suffered several box office blows with the cancellation of its flagship Opera on the Harbour event that was to open on March 27.