Dear Mr. Taylor

[Richmondhill]

1 hour ago, alison said:

"Outside the Crush Bar" makes me think on the stairs, which would be even worse.

 

Almost: it was the bench seat at the top of the staircase - you couldn’t miss it (or the aroma)!

[RuthE]

1 hour ago, Timmie said:

 

Just wanted to add that the main reason for this is the disproportionate increase in the prices of my favourite seats and because matinee prices are now the same as evening prices.

 

Quite.  As somebody who normally stands, the price of my favourite tickets hasn't changed drastically - yet.  But the cost of those to which I used to treat myself on a special occasion or for a favourite artist have been doubly affected by both of the above factors.  No more of my occasional £60-ish treat of a front-row-centre Stalls seat for a full-length popular ballet matinee, and a 50% increase in the price of my favourite "treat" opera tickets (A14-18 in the Stalls Circle and the same on the other side).

Edited November 27, 2018 by RuthE

[RuthE]

It's also, as others have said, made me massively less likely to "consider them in my will" as I seem to be being actively encouraged to do.  There is one medium-sized London opera company where I am genuinely made to feel like a member of the family, even though I rarely buy tickets at more than the cheapest rate, and that (and similar) is where I'm most likely to direct anything I haven't already spent on opera and ballet tickets when I die!

[Bruce Wall]

46 minutes ago, RuthE said:

 

Quite.  As somebody who normally stands, the price of my favourite tickets hasn't changed drastically - yet.  But the cost of those to which I used to treat myself on a special occasion or for a favourite artist have been doubly affected by both of the above factors.  No more of my occasional £60-ish treat of a front-row-centre Stalls seat for a full-length popular ballet matinee, and a 50% increase in the price of my favourite "treat" opera tickets (A14-18 in the Stalls Circle and the same on the other side).

 

I with you on this score, Ruth ... but prize myself that at least we WILL be able to remember when.  The generations to come sadly won't themselves be able to have that privilege.   

 

[Xandra Newman]

All those unnecessary changes, the badly handled Open Up, etc. etc. etc.has made me so terribly sad. All this just as The Royal Ballet is on such a high and filled with world-class artists! I once felt I really belonged to the ROH... but not any longer. 

[LinMM]

I can't believe the take away outside the crush bar. I do hope that gets stopped. To be honest I have NEVER taken food into any part of the opera house not even homemade sandwiches....but I certainly wouldn't buy there's now or even before....I'm pretty sure egg and cress sandwiches were £11 something up in the Amphi up to two years ago!! If people must though the new cafe area at the bottom should be where this happens.

Have to say when at home we are nearly always on a doublish measure of gin for gin and tonics as a matter of course...however it seems very unfair to not at least initially ( for first two to three months) have something displayed which shows their policy has changed.

I never drink at the opera house either! I'm always on water when watching performances .......mostly because it's nearly always too hot and I get dehydrated quite quickly in the House but also because I cannot down a glass of wine in an interval .....and judging by left glasses around many others can't either!! What's the point of paying over the top for a glass of wine and then not being able to finish it!! And anyway I can think of better places to go and have a drink in the area if I wanted to do that. 

I didn't have any problems reading the new cast sheets or cast change sheets once I'd put my reading glasses on but agree they are not as good as they were. Why do people have to try and keep "fixing" things that are already working well!! 

I did buy a programme on Monday because it covered two ballets I'd never seen before ....but that's the only time I buy a programme now when it's a new ballet or just one I haven't seen before.

 

[bridiem]

21 minutes ago, LinMM said:

 

I did buy a programme on Monday because it covered two ballets I'd never seen before ....but that's the only time I buy a programme now when it's a new ballet or just one I haven't seen before.

 I used to buy one whenever there was a new work. I did buy one for the new Swan Lake, for obvious reasons, but that will be it for the foreseeable future.

[alison]

I usually wait for the second run so I can get the production photographs, rather than loads of people in rehearsal dress in the studio!

[JohnS]

2 hours ago, Xandra Newman said:

I once felt I really belonged to the ROH... but not any longer. 

 

How terribly sad Xandra - perhaps we're all expressing that Infra scream in some ways.

 

Your post encapsulates the despondency of much this thread and the 'new' Royal Opera House thread.  I'm hoping that many of the problems experienced can be put down to 'teething' which will be addressed by sensible review.  But there’s a vital repair job to be undertaken by the Royal Opera House as soon as possible to rebuild bridges and ensure regular audience members feel valued.

 

Today was Spring booking for me and I was very pleased with my bookings.  I've taken the opportunity to write, highlighting the fabulous performances this Season to date and looking forward to future performances, but also drawing attention to the criticisms voiced here and the damage being inflicted by alienating regular audience members.

 

I would urge others to write or write again as I know many have already written.

[aliceinwoolfland]

The sneaky drinks charge is very depressing. My partner and I don't have an awful lot of spare money - I am a fairly new teacher and he is a student. We went to the ROH recently, and he decided to buy me an alcoholic drink as a treat. They had no amaretto, but listed gin and tonic as something they could do, so I went for that. He almost had a heart attack at the bill. The double measure explains everything.

 

The ROH is claiming to become more accessible and less elitist, but all they have actually done is encouraged the general public to come into the building, and diminished the experience of those who buy tickets. They cannot be serious about accessibility when prices of cheap seats are rising and when costs that hit poorer people hardest (programmes, ticket returns etc) are creeping up. I think that's the worst part - the hypocrisy of it all. Decrying 'elitism' while at the same time complaining that if tickets sell out quickly they are too cheap. Making ordinary regulars who spend a large proportion of their income there feeling unwelcome, while clearly gunning for new, richer audiences who have only a passing interest in ballet and opera.

[penelopesimpson]

13 minutes ago, JohnS said:

 

How terribly sad Xandra - perhaps we're all expressing that Infra scream in some ways.

 

Your post encapsulates the despondency of much this thread and the 'new' Royal Opera House thread.  I'm hoping that many of the problems experienced can be put down to 'teething' which will be addressed by sensible review.  But there’s a vital repair job to be undertaken by the Royal Opera House as soon as possible to rebuild bridges and ensure regular audience members feel valued.

 

Today was Spring booking for me and I was very pleased with my bookings.  I've taken the opportunity to write, highlighting the fabulous performances this Season to date and looking forward to future performances, but also drawing attention to the criticisms voiced here and the damage being inflicted by alienating regular audience members.

 

I would urge others to write or write again as I know many have already written.

I wrote to the key players shortly after I started this thread.  No response as yet.

 

I would like to be optimistic but problems can only be solved if they are first acknowleged and I have seen no evidence of this.

 

We have a Marketing Department that has, apparently, created a new brand for RoH without telling us what it is.

We were told to suffer through three years of rebuilding so as to create an improved Opera House.  Naively we thought the newly enhanced facilities would primarily be for patrons of opera and ballet.  The reality is a free drop-in area for meetings, wi-fi, toilet and cloakroom facilities for people not attending a performance.  Worse, Arts patrons have to pay stratospheric price rises to pay for all this largesse.  

We have a Chairman who thinks the organisation he leads is elitist but wants to extract the highest possible level of spend from his core customers.

Saving the planet is a new buzzword but green credentials will only be used for items ROH doesn't charge for.

 

Sorry, ROH, but I don't think you know which way is up.

[alison]

35 minutes ago, penelopesimpson said:

Worse, Arts patrons have to pay stratospheric price rises to pay for all this largesse.  

 

 

Well, we were told that the whole of Open Up was funded by private donation, so logically there should have been no need to raise prices, let alone by 50% or more, as has not infrequently happened.

[bridiem]

I think we need a new  spoof (?) documentary series: WC2E.

[JohnS]

23 minutes ago, alison said:

 

 

Well, we were told that the whole of Open Up was funded by private donation, so logically there should have been no need to raise prices, let alone by 50% or more, as has not infrequently happened.

 

I think this may be a little unfair Alison.  My understanding is that Open Up capital costs were all funded by private donation.  I have no idea if Open Up additional running costs were to be met by private donations but I don't think the ROH has ever suggested that.  Decisions on ticket prices are surely part of the overall budget setting process where there are real pressures with Arts Council subsidy cut by 3% in cash terms and 6% in real terms and the ROH has to balance its books.  That isn't to say I endorse the ROH's approach to pricing at all and would have preferred price increases to be targeted at the more expensive seats  - placing relatively cheap seats in higher price categories resulting in significant price increases is particularly galling.

[penelopesimpson]

1 hour ago, alison said:

 

 

Well, we were told that the whole of Open Up was funded by private donation, so logically there should have been no need to raise prices, let alone by 50% or more, as has not infrequently happened.

I struggle with this proposition.  If there is so much money washing around out there, then why couldn't it have been used for the benefit of the Arts, most especially keeping ticket prices down.  Secondly, as many lottery funded arts organisations have found, building is one thing, running costs quite another.

[alison]

1 hour ago, JohnS said:

Decisions on ticket prices are surely part of the overall budget setting process where there are real pressures with Arts Council subsidy cut by 3% in cash terms and 6% in real terms and the ROH has to balance its books.  That isn't to say I endorse the ROH's approach to pricing at all and would have preferred price increases to be targeted at the more expensive seats  - placing relatively cheap seats in higher price categories resulting in significant price increases is particularly galling.

 

Well yes, but then raise prices overall, don't put huge increases on a mere handful of seats.  I mean, I think we all recognise that ticket prices may have to rise, but they could probably have got the same - or a better - result by putting £1 on all ticket prices, which would have been a lot fairer.  That is, of course, assuming that they were only interested in balancing the books - which obviously they weren't, as recent events have shown.

[JohnS]

12 hours ago, alison said:

 

Well yes, but then raise prices overall, don't put huge increases on a mere handful of seats.  I mean, I think we all recognise that ticket prices may have to rise, but they could probably have got the same - or a better - result by putting £1 on all ticket prices, which would have been a lot fairer. 

 

Ticket prices were raised across the board - seats remaining in the same price category went up by 6.5% comparing Swan Lake to Nutcracker (6.4% most expensive seats; 6.8% for top price amphitheatre seats).  It's seats moving to higher price categories where there were very significant price increases, with a few seats moved to lower price categories.

[Lizbie1]

18 minutes ago, JohnS said:

 

Ticket prices were raised across the board - seats remaining in the same price category went up by 6.5% comparing Swan Lake to Nutcracker (6.4% most expensive seats; 6.8% for top price amphitheatre seats).  It's seats moving to higher price categories where there were very significant price increases, with a few seats moved to lower price categories.

 

I haven’t done a thorough analysis, but the seats I plan to book for Romeo and Juliet will be £21 for matinee and evening alike and are still in the same price band as they were for Giselle (£12 matinee, £14 evening) and Manon (£12 matinee, not sure about evening) last season. So that’s at least a 50% price rise in the same band and for a similar category of production of comparable popularity.

 

They were placed in a higher category for Swan Lake, but I’m hoping that was a one-off.

[Lizbie1]

I’ve just had another look, and the most I paid for this (my habitual) price band in the last two seasons was £17 for Sleeping Beauty and the new Swan Lake (though it’s possible last year’s Nutcracker, which I skipped, cost more).

[zxDaveM]

 

just a thought - most of the cheaper seats that many of us on this forum buy on a regular basis, largely don't have 100% view of the stage (a sweeping generalisation on both points, I know). You would have thought that discouraging regulars who buy those tickets by large % price rises, so that non-regulars/newbies could buy them instead (unaware that they are no longer the bargain they once were) would be self defeating, as a first time experience where you can't see some of what's going on would put said newbies off ever darkening the doors again, as well as successfully driving away a previously loyal regular. Double whammy scored!

[penelopesimpson]

A bit too well-thought for ROH Marketing!

[ninamargaret]

I'm sure there are no figures available, but I would love to know how many of those visiting the Opera House as casual visitors have been encouraged to buy tickets - and even more interested to know if any of them have been enthusiastic enough to come twice. 

[Josephine]

1 hour ago, Lizbie1 said:

I’ve just had another look, and the most I paid for this (my habitual) price band in the last two seasons was £17 for Sleeping Beauty and the new Swan Lake (though it’s possible last year’s Nutcracker, which I skipped, cost more).

For what it's worth I have a £28 ticket for this season's Nutcracker, an evening performance. This is for an Amphitheatre seat sold as restricted view. The same seat for an evening performance of The Nutcracker cost £16 in both Dec 2015 and Jan 2017. I think I was in SCS for The Nutcracker last season!

 

The price increase for the same seat for Mayerling was less steep: £16 in Apr 2017 against £18 in Oct 2018 (both evening performances).

[Beryl H]

57 minutes ago, ninamargaret said:

I'm sure there are no figures available, but I would love to know how many of those visiting the Opera House as casual visitors have been encouraged to buy tickets - and even more interested to know if any of them have been enthusiastic enough to come twice. 

 

They might need Sherlock Holmes to help them find the Box Office and what's on.

 

I have to say I used to treat the National Theatre the same way as people are treating the ROH, but there were always lots of current brochures and leaflets about, plus the Box Office was right by the main entrance.

[alison]

2 hours ago, ninamargaret said:

I'm sure there are no figures available, but I would love to know how many of those visiting the Opera House as casual visitors have been encouraged to buy tickets - and even more interested to know if any of them have been enthusiastic enough to come twice. 

 

You're assuming they could find the box office without satnav?

[Aruna S]

This thread prompts me to write about a not very pleasant incident during my last visit to the ROH. I went for the Ring, and would usually pop in to the Grand Tier or the Stalls during the intervals to chat with friends there. When I did this during Siegfried (i.e. day 3 of the cycle) I was chased - literally chased - by an usher calling "here, wait a minute, here". When I realised he was talking to me (I'm not used to being addressed as "here") I stopped and asked what the matter was. He asked if I was there for the performance and I said "well, obviously", and walked away. Another usher had come up and joined him and I heard her hissing "ask to see her ticket" ,  but nothing further was said to me. I didn't connect this to Open Up and the fact that apparently anyone can wander in off the street *and get into the auditorium during a performance*, and was quite annoyed, to put it mildly. I still feel that I was treated rudely, but there is some justification for the ushers I suppose. It made me feel very unwelcome, which is sad because I travel regularly for ballet/Wagner and have spent quite a lot of money at the ROH.

[zxDaveM]

2 hours ago, ninamargaret said:

I'm sure there are no figures available, but I would love to know how many of those visiting the Opera House as casual visitors have been encouraged to buy tickets - and even more interested to know if any of them have been enthusiastic enough to come twice. 

 

Can’t be many, as those encouraged through the doors at the moment will find most performances sold out. And if you’re on a ‘spur of the moment’ thing, buying for a show 3 months + away, probably not going to happen....

[aliceinwoolfland]

31 minutes ago, Aruna S said:

This thread prompts me to write about a not very pleasant incident during my last visit to the ROH. I went for the Ring, and would usually pop in to the Grand Tier or the Stalls during the intervals to chat with friends there. When I did this during Siegfried (i.e. day 3 of the cycle) I was chased - literally chased - by an usher calling "here, wait a minute, here". When I realised he was talking to me (I'm not used to being addressed as "here") I stopped and asked what the matter was. He asked if I was there for the performance and I said "well, obviously", and walked away. Another usher had come up and joined him and I heard her hissing "ask to see her ticket" ,  but nothing further was said to me. I didn't connect this to Open Up and the fact that apparently anyone can wander in off the street *and get into the auditorium during a performance*, and was quite annoyed, to put it mildly. I still feel that I was treated rudely, but there is some justification for the ushers I suppose. It made me feel very unwelcome, which is sad because I travel regularly for ballet/Wagner and have spent quite a lot of money at the ROH.

That is really bad 😔 My partner and I had the opposite experience - we were hovering near the Grand Tier entrance during the interval and were encouraged to go in by a very kind usher. Must have got lucky! 

[penelopesimpson]

6 hours ago, Aruna S said:

This thread prompts me to write about a not very pleasant incident during my last visit to the ROH. I went for the Ring, and would usually pop in to the Grand Tier or the Stalls during the intervals to chat with friends there. When I did this during Siegfried (i.e. day 3 of the cycle) I was chased - literally chased - by an usher calling "here, wait a minute, here". When I realised he was talking to me (I'm not used to being addressed as "here") I stopped and asked what the matter was. He asked if I was there for the performance and I said "well, obviously", and walked away. Another usher had come up and joined him and I heard her hissing "ask to see her ticket" ,  but nothing further was said to me. I didn't connect this to Open Up and the fact that apparently anyone can wander in off the street *and get into the auditorium during a performance*, and was quite annoyed, to put it mildly. I still feel that I was treated rudely, but there is some justification for the ushers I suppose. It made me feel very unwelcome, which is sad because I travel regularly for ballet/Wagner and have spent quite a lot of money at the ROH.

Oh, that is terrific.  We have opened up ROH, but...

 

As I said earlier, they do not know which way is up. Does Alex Beard know nothing about leadership?

[Ian Macmillan]

Anything to learn from Calgary? ..........

 

https://calgaryherald.com/opinion/columnists/opinion-alberta-ballet-is-proof-the-arts-must-run-as-a-business

 

 

[John Mallinson]

Seems like self-congratulatory waffle. No specifics as to how they turned things around. 

[alison]

Are you talking about the "running it as a business" bit or the "re-invigorating stakeholder relations / stakeholder and community engagement / prioritizing the ballet’s relationships with stakeholders" bit, Ian?

[Ian Macmillan]

Me?  I just supply links .........