Jason Heath has posted some interesting reading on the reality of the freelance music business: 

http://www.adaptistration.com/artsaddict/2007/11/this-crazy-bu-1.html

Some of the points Jason makes include:

"Assembling a career out of these disparate employment opportunities and having no guarantee of future employment from the bulk of these employers has a leveling effect on the quality of each of these individual organizations in the eyes of the freelance musician."

Jason also writes, 

"Freelance musicians must therefore only allow themselves to have ‘part-time loyalty’ to these groups—that is, loyalty within reason, to a degree proportional to the amount of work offered and the stability of the employment conditions of this organization."

One wonders how the FGO intends to field a quality orchestra next season given the Opera's position on loyalty and stability for its musicians (who themselves have given loyalty and stability to the Opera)...