JohnS

Very much looking forward to today’s double performance and it’s been very good to read all the posts. Heading for London and Avanti have clearly improved since they were awarded their contract extension: I heard yesterday that my train had been cancelled rather than when getting to the station. No explanation as to why other than ‘unforeseen circumstances’ and no facility to reserve a seat on trains allegedly running. But the train via Birmingham is new, there’s a power point at every seat, and the quiet coach more than lives up to its name, so I’ve stayed on the train rather than change at Crewe.

I think a couple of good Balcony standing tickets are included in Friday Rush - D30 & 31?

Disappointed to read about the amplification. I can’t think of any performance I’ve attended which has benefitted from amplification - save when there are speeches. I’d like to think amplification will be abandoned for future performances and at the very least things will have settled down for when I go on the 28th.

It’s organ donation week 16 to 24 September (9 days). As part of raising awareness and encouraging people to talk to their loved ones about their wishes, NHS Trusts have asked teams to record distances walked, run, cycled etc. Personal / Team Targets: Travel 9km, a distance that represents the 9 lives one organ donor can save Travel 40km to represent the 40 children who donated their organs last year Travel 200km to represent the number of children who are currently waiting for a life saving transplant Travel 300km a distance that represents the number of people currently waiting for a life saving heart or lung transplant Travel 600km to raise awareness of the 600 people waiting for a liver transplant Travel 900km, a number that represents the number of living kidney donors Travel 1400km to honour the number of organ donors last year Travel 3700km to celebrate the number of organs by the 1400 donors Travel 5500km, a distance that represents the number of people waiting for a kidney transplant Travel 7000km to represent the number of people currently waiting for a life saving transplant Regional Target: Travel 50,000km, a distance that represents the number of people living in the UK today with an organ transplant People can simply record their activity as individuals but you might like to join a team and so help contribute to your local NHS trust winning the race. Or you’d be very welcome to join Northern Region’s North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Trust’s team where I chair the Organ Donation Committee and provide a donor family perspective in the various discussions. In North Cumbria on Monday we made awards to living donors where increasingly people are donating a kidney to a relative or altruistically. Tonight we’re unveiling a memorial statue in Whitehaven Hospital in commemoration of organ donors and their families. Here’s the link to ‘Race for Recipients’ where you can register to participate either as an individual or for a team. You can record all your distances from Saturday 16 September once you’ve registered so your 10km Saturday fun run in the park or walking the dog would count. There’s also a wealth of material which expands the targets set out above and which may be of interest. https://raceforrecipients.com/

I’m sorry to read about the problems you had @HelenHelen. I think the Don Q and Manon prices are part of the ROH’s experimental pricing whilst Nutcracker prices are not: rather they reflect more traditional pricing patterns. Given the experimental nature of Don Q and Manon pricing, I think it’s important to give feedback to the ROH. The ROH did respond to feedback when Don Q standing prices were announced and there have been some other welcome changes eg Stalls Circle bench seats which under experimental pricing are more reasonably priced, including a lower price category for the more restricted seats. But those front Amphitheatre Sides seats you highlight seem the most glaring examples of extortionate prices under experimental pricing. When I contacted Alex Beard after Winter prices were published to offer some feedback, I certainly drew attention to those seats. Alex Beard said he’d share my thoughts with the team to continue the debate around pricing levels. Spring brings Swan Lake, most probably the highest priced ballet this season, and I’d like to think the ROH will look again at these seats before finalising Spring prices. Perhaps further feedback adding weight to concerns raised may help bring about change?

First trip of the new season and I’ve been very fortunate having booked Our Voices x2 on 28th, Das Rheingold on 29th, and the Don Q General Rehearsal and Opening Night on 30th. Whilst there may be some disruption on the Sunday morning, I’m pretty sure sufficient trains will be running and I’ll get home.

Just a few days left for Friends etc to see the film of the Royal Ballet School’s Annual Performance - it’s available to watch up to midnight on 31 August 2023.

I’ve been meaning to add a few thoughts on pricing now we’ve seen the detail for Winter 2023-24 and there’s more coming to light about the ROH’s experimental pricing. Apologies for the delay but I’ve been busy completing my 2nd round of the Lake District fells this year (and starting a 3rd round) so l’m still catching up on the Forum. Having thought a little more about pricing, it seems there are a handful of productions which are piloting experimental pricing. But the majority of productions are not part of the experiment. They continue a pattern of pricing where we’ve seen a plethora of different seat maps and huge anomalies in prices, amongst the worst being the extortionate prices for Stalls Circle Sides bench seats - £112 for last season’s Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake. The ROH has not addressed these criticisms and we see extortionate prices charged for these bench seats for Nutcracker (£108) and Dante (£80), the same price charged for Balcony Stalls restricted view seats. But if experimental pricing proves successful and is fully rolled out across all productions, then some of the existing anomalies may well be tackled albeit they may be replaced by other concerns. Turning to the experimental pricing productions, I think we now have pricing information for three operas (Rigoletto, Elektra and Boheme) and two ballets (Don Q and Manon): Production Top Price Balcony Central Block Restricted (eg A33) Stalls Circle Sides Bench Seats (eg B26) Amphitheatre Sides (Row E) Slips (max) Standing (max) Opera Rigoletto £220 £146 £78 £97 £78 £49 £49 £24 66% 35% 44% to 22% 22% 11% Elektra £200 £108 £79 £64 £79 £64 £49 £49 £24 54% 40% to 32% 40% to 25% 25% 12% Boheme £245 £132 £97 £78 £97 £78 £49 £49 £25 54% 40% to 32% 40% to 20% 20% 10% Ballet Don Quixote £150 £104 £83 £83 £67 £52 £14 £14 69% 55% 55% to 35% 9% 9% Manon £140 £99 £79 £63 £79 £63 £49 £14 £14 71% 56% 45% 56% to 35% 10% 10% Illustrative £175 top price ballet £175 £121 £97, £78 £97 £78 £61 £16 £16 69% 55% 55% to 35% 9% 9% There are some interesting changes between Autumn and Winter and the changes were made before Autumn tickers were generally on sale and they can’t reflect final audience reaction to prices as the new Season is still some weeks away: a) Elektra’s and Boheme’s Balcony restricted view seats are significantly reduced compared to Rigoletto (54% of top price compared to 66%). b) There are two price categories for Stalls Circle bench seats for Elektra and Boheme compared to one for Rigoletto. c) There’s a reduction in the relative cost of the top price Amphitheatre Sides seats - down from 44% to 40%. All three operas share the £49 lowest price for Row E. I wonder if for opera there’s been a decision to ensure that at least some front Amphitheatre Side seats are under £50? d) All operas share the £49 maximum price for Slips with Standing places £24 (£25 for Boheme). d) Looking at experimental pricing for ballet, the only change of note for Manon compared to Don Q is the welcome introduction of two price categories for Stalls Circle bench seats, mirroring what’s happened for operas. e) However, for Manon there has been no reduction in the relative price of Balcony restricted view seats (which Winter operas have enjoyed): indeed there’s a marginal increase, up from 69% to 71%. f) And the discounts offered to ballet for the vast majority of seats are nowhere near as generous as those offered to opera (by some 15 percentage points of the top price for the production). g) The only exception is the extraordinary pricing for best Slips seats where opera prices are all £49 (20% to 25% of the top price) and ballet prices are £14 (9% or 10% of the top price). I can’t understand the rationale at all … unless perhaps there were two consultants who were working in isolation? When I first looked at prices for all Autumn productions, I don’t think it was clear which productions formed part of experimental pricing. The ROH did not set out its rationale (in terms of fairness, accessibility, and financial viability) nor its strategy for achieving it (testing experimental pricing for a limited number of productions). Instead bits and pieces of information have emerged. So in Autumn it seemed perfectly reasonable to look at all productions and make comparisons. But with the ROH now piloting its experimental pricing, I don’t think it will pay much attention to comparisons with non experimental pricing productions. After all by definition experimental pricing will be a departure from previous practice. And for ballet at least, the one Winter main stage production, Manon, looks to be very much part of the experimental pricing testing. The ROH may highlight fairness, accessibility, financial viability in general terms but it hasn’t set out its criteria for demonstrating its achievements. As regards ‘accessibility’, the ROH has had variations of x% of tickets sold at £y or less. But with inflation and cuts in funding, x has been falling and y increasing. Setting x as something which itself is indexed for inflation would help (eg linked to minimum or living wage) and give the ROH at least the possibility of improving accessibility although that won’t address cuts to grant funding. No doubt financial viability could be measured, including the extent to which experimental pricing increases box office revenue. But there would also be need to consider whether there were any adverse effects flowing from the experimental pricing: for example a reduction in membership income if Friends were to cancel membership or reduce their level of membership; or if legacies were adversely affected. But I struggle to see how the ROH proposes to demonstrate fairness when it explicitly wishes to reduce the number of price categories and narrow differences between price categories. Those two factors inevitably mean that medium to lower priced tickets would increase at a faster rate than top priced tickets. And the ROH is explicitly looking at different pricing models for opera and ballet. Over recent years we have seen ballet medium to lower priced tickets increasing at a much faster rate than similar tickets for opera and the result is that ballet tickets are a much higher percentage of the top price than opera. That has meant that for some tickets, the same seat costs more for a ballet than for opera despite top opera prices being significantly more expensive than top ballet prices. I can’t see how such outcomes can be described as ‘fair’. From what we see to date of experimental pricing, the minimum price for Don Q Amphitheatre Sides Row E seats is a staggering £52 (compared to £32 for Nutcracker, a ‘non experimental pricing’ price). The price for the same seat for the three operas is £49 where top price opera is up to £100 more than the Don Q top price. Experimental pricing talked about reducing the number of price categories but one of the first changes has been to restore/add an extra price category for Stalls Circle bench seats. The bench seats are therefore priced more reasonably under experimental pricing than the extortionate prices charged for Nutcracker (and last season’s Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella). I’d add a note of caution about drawing comparisons between Don Q and last Season’s Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. Top price tickets for Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella were £175 whilst for Don Q the top price is £150. Also Don Q is part of experimental pricing so the Stalls Circle bench seats are more reasonably priced and there are now the two price categories. For illustration at the bottom of my table above I’ve taken the Don Q pricing pattern and shown what prices would be for a £175 top price ballet. The £112 Sleeping Beauty/Cinderella price (top price Amphitheatre and restricted view Balcony) would be £121; Stalls Circle bench seats would be £97 and £78; and the Amphitheatre Sides Row E minimum price would be £61. We’ll have to see what prices are set for Swan Lake (where the top price may be £175 or higher). Booking opens before the end of November and so there may well be incomplete feedback on Don Q prices and Manon general booking will only have been open for a few weeks, with opening night perhaps a couple of months away. Whilst it’s too early to draw conclusions, I’d highlight the following: a) Good to see more reasonably priced Stalls Circle bench seats with two price categories (for both opera and ballet); b) Extraordinarily generous Slips top prices for ballet (but not for opera) where ballet prices are the same as for Standing places; c) But extortionate prices for the cheapest front Amphitheatre Sides seats (where it seems opera may well have a £49 cap). I recognise that £49 is massively more expensive than prices for ballets not subject to experimental pricing (eg £32 for Nutcracker) and would support having a much lower cap than £49 for ballets; d) And critically, what is the justification for opera medium/lower priced tickets receiving such a generous discount? As a percentage of top prices, the vast majority of opera seats are some 15 percentage points lower than ballet seats. How is this ‘fair’ or is there a better proxy measure for fairness than comparing seats as a percentage of the top price for the production? I’d also say that the ROH does take feedback seriously and has clearly responded to some criticisms made: Don Q Standing prices; the two price categories for Stalls Circle bench seats; and perhaps the reduction in prices for Winter operas compared to Rigoletto. Anyone wishing to give personal feedback to the ROH can of course do so at any point: I’m sure the ROH will be interested in seeing what audience members have to say.

I’m going to more performances this Autumn compared to last year (25 versus 15): 10x Don Q (1x Stalls, 1x Stalls Circle, 4x Balcony, 4x Standing) 4x Cellist (1x Stalls Circle, x Balcony) 4x Nutcracker (2x Balcony, 2x Standing) 2x Dante (1x Stalls Circle, 1x Balcony) 2x Limit 1x Generations 2x Opera (2x Standing) Last year I managed: 9x Mayerling (2x Stalls, 1x Stalls Circle, 5x Balcony, 1x Standing) 3x Nutcracker 1x Balcony, 2x Standing) 2x Light of Passage (2x Balcony) 1x Diaminds (1x Standing) Whilst I’ve more forthcoming events this Autumn, I’m standing a fair bit more and only occasionally sit in my favourite Stalls seats. I think one of the reasons for the increase in numbers of events is the ROH weekend schedule when it’s possible to see three or four performances for a night or two in London and when I’m more than happy to see all the casts.

I know what you mean @bridiem. I don’t know what analysis was put forward to support the rationale for experimental pricing such as Don Q. I’d have hoped it included comparisons with other Autumn productions which were not part of the pricing experiment. But then if comparisons were made, how would it be possible to justify the fairness of the very high amphitheatre side prices (lowest price £52 and higher than all other productions save Das Rheingold) and the very low (£14) lower slips price which doesn’t really square with maximising box office revenue? I think there’s another strand to your concern @RHowarth. If there’s a reduction in the number of price categories and the differentials between price categories are also reduced (even if the reductions are marginal), doesn’t that inevitably mean medium/lower prices must rise … unless top prices fall which seems unlikely? But perhaps these questions illustrate the difficulties of trying to achieve the objectives of fairness, accessibility and maximising box office revenue as well as concerns as how that balance is being struck.

A number of people said they’d be interested in seeing any response from Alex Beard to the points made in my post above. Following further email exchanges I put together a draft précis of what Alex Beard told me about the ROH’s pricing policy which he is very happy for me to post on the Forum. I do hope it is of interest. “Alex Beard makes clear that he very much appreciates feedback provided by Friends and patrons and welcomes the analyses and suggestions made which have been taken on board by himself and the executive team. As regards pricing policy, Alex Beard sees fairness as vitally important: indeed it is front and centre of all the changes being made. The ROH needs to balance accessibility with the financial imperative. Its costs are affected not just by inflation but also the immense challenges of upgrading ageing backstage infrastructure, which itself requires millions of pounds of capital investment. Combined with changing consumer habits and other pressures on the ROH’s finances, the ROH must make some changes to a pricing model which has remained largely unchanged for many years. Alex Beard explains the broad sense of the changes being made: in short, the ROH is looking to better align demand with seats, which means changes to price bands for certain areas of the auditorium, and also the relative prices between productions. The ROH is doing this in a staged way to ensure there is an increase in overall yield, to cover ever-mounting costs, while at the same time ensuring it maintains a significant proportion of tickets at affordable prices to remain accessible. He is confident that the ROH’s pricing policy combines accessibility, fairness and the financial viability of the organisation which will enable it to navigate further financial uncertainty ahead. Whilst there have been some teething problems in rolling out and testing changes, Alex Beard emphasises that the decisions and changes being made are not taken lightly, and are the result of rigorous internal and external scrutiny. The ROH approached this project initially by engaging expert consultants, who have subsequently, over many months, conducted a comprehensive review of ROH data, compared it with the rest of the theatre sector, and generated fully-costed and robust recommendations. This work has suggested that there may be advantage in moving to more compressed price bands (a somewhat reduced number of price bands with lower differentials between some of them), bringing the ROH more into line with most other theatres and arts venues. The specifics of these recommendations have subsequently been reviewed and interrogated by the ROH’s executive team, Finance Committee and the Board of Trustees, before being trialled on a test basis to evaluate the risks alongside benefits before wider roll-out and implementation. Alex Beard concludes by reiterating the rationale for change. Ultimately the aim is to optimise box office revenue at a time of sharply declining Arts Council funding and rising costs so that the ROH can continue to sustain its work on stage. The ROH is aiming to set prices which achieve maximum occupancy and yield with as little a headline price rise as possible, minimising discounting and continuing to ensure it remains as accessible as possible.”

Don Q 3/11 https://www.roh.org.uk/seatmap?performanceId=56222 Don Q 17/11 https://www.roh.org.uk/seatmap?performanceId=56226 @Angela Essex I hope these links work as I wasn’t successful when posting a Nutcracker seat map.

I kept getting ‘Electrical’, changed the ending, but missed the c until I saw your post.

Elektra slip prices are £49, £24 and £15 - I’m afraid autocorrect defeated me earlier.

Like @Bluebird I’m a Friend and received the link. I’ve still to find out what membership involves.

My Winter Magazine turned up in the post this afternoon. I know we need to see the seat maps but I was struck by the Slips £14 top price for Manon which seems a repeat of what I thought was a Don Q undercharging ‘mis-step’ where the Slips top price was also £14. Top price Slips for other Winter productions are: Electra & Boheme £49; Cav & Pag & Tosca £32; Hansel & Gretel £23. All pretty arbitrary as the operas in price order are: Cav & Pag, Boheme & Tosca £245; Electra £200; Hansel & Gretel £155. I was rather hoping there may have been something about the ROH’s pricing policy but perhaps that might sit better in one of the Friends’ fortnightly news letters. I’ll be interested in seeing the seat maps in due course but I can’t say I have a great deal of confidence in what might be there given the Slips pricing oddities.

I’d suggest checking with the RBS about joining in August and whether that means you’d be able to see the film. I’m pretty sure last year the film was only available for a month.

Very pleased to get the Royal Ballet School’s email this afternoon with a link to a film of the Annual Performance. It’s available for the whole of August.

Following the Don Q standing price volte-face, I’ve had some email exchanges with Alex Beard about more general pricing concerns. Once the seat maps were finalised, I had a look at the prices for all the Autumn productions, opera and ballet as there is concern that ballet prices have increased at a faster rate than for opera, particularly for cheaper seats. I looked at a couple of productions from Autumn 2018, Carmen and Nutcracker, the most expensive opera and ballet that Autumn, as @Bluebird had kindly posted seat maps for that quarter earlier in this thread, and it’s helpful having some longer term perspective. For all productions I was interested in the top price, a restricted view Balcony seat, Stalls Circle Sides bench seats, Amphitheatre Sides Row E, Slips maximum price, and Standing maximum price. By expressing all these seat prices as a percentage of the top price for the production, it’s relatively easy to spot patterns. If there’s a consistency in patterns, that could be taken as evidence of fairness - the comfort and view offered from a particular seat/standing place is identical whatever the production (save where the set creates obstacles as has occasionally happened). Where there isn’t consistency and percentages look very odd and out of step when compared to other productions, that might suggest a degree of unfairness and questions can be asked as to whether audiences are being overcharged or indeed undercharged where the ROH is potentially missing out on additional box office revenue. In the table below, I’ve highlighted in bold those prices which look odd and where there may be overcharging or occasionally undercharging. Some of these might be the ‘mis-steps’ in the ROH’s statement about its decision to charge £14 rather than the £26 originally proposed for Don Q Standing tickets. Apologies for the presentation. I tried attaching a file but hit the buffers as the document (even a PDF version) exceeded my limit so I’ve had to paste a table into this post. Some of the formatting went rather awry which I’ve tried to tidy and there’s a chance that what looks ok when drafting a post doesn’t quite make it when posted. Production Top Price Balcony Central Block Restricted (eg A33) Stalls Circle Sides Bench Seats (eg B26) Amphitheatre Sides (Row E) Slips (Max) Standing (Max) Autumn 2023 Das Rheingold £325 £146 £133 £146 £138 £87 £64 £43 £25 45% 41% 45% to 20% 13% 8% La forza del destino £245 £118 £86 £118 £86 £65 £48 £32 £19 48% 35% 48% to 20% 13% 8% Rigoletto £220 £146 £78 £97 £78 £49 £49 £24 66% 35% 44% to 22% 22% 11% L’elisie d’amore £210 £100 £74 £100 £74 £56 £42 £28 £15 48% 35% 48% to 20% 13% 7% Jephtha £200 £96 £71 £96 £71 £52 £40 £28 £16 48% 36% 48% to 20% 14% 8% Nutcracker £160 £108 £108 £88 £68 £50 £32 £21 £12 68% 68% 55% to 20% 13% 8% Don Quixote £150 £104 £83 £83 £67 £52 £14 £14 69% 55% 55% to 35% 9% 9% The Dante Project £130 £80 £80 £66 £51 £39 £29 £21 £21 £14 62% 62% 51% to 16% 16% 11% Anemoi/The Cellist £110 £67 £50 £50 £39 £29 £22 £16 £9 61% 45% 45% to 20% 15% 8% Autumn 2018 Carmen £200 £94 £72 £94 £72 £52 £40 £30 £15 47% 36% 47% to 20% 15% 8% Nutcracker £125 £74 £67 £67 £50 £35 £28 £21 £21 £10 59% 54% 54% to 17% 17% 8% Discussion of table As regards opera, there’s a shared pattern for 4 of the 5 productions where prices as a percentage of the maximum price are broadly consistent. But Rigoletto does look to be very much an outlier. The prices for the restricted view seats in the Balcony, the Slips and Standing are all very high: indeed the Slips are £6 more expensive than for Rheingold. These all look like overcharges to me. Turning to ballet productions, the generic point that stands out is that the Balcony and Stalls Circle cheaper tickets are consistently a higher percentage of the top price than for opera (save for Rigoletto Balcony which looks very out of step as mentioned above). I can appreciate that discounts may tail off as the top price reduces (opera tends to be higher price than ballet) but the differences are pretty significant and have become more pronounced in recent years. Looking at the 2018 Carmen and Nutcracker figures, opera prices as a percentage of the top price have not changed markedly between 2018 and 2023. Ballet prices in 2018 were a higher percentage of the top price compared to opera but now they are an even higher percentage. That suggests to me that either ballet prices have increased unfairly or that the ROH is undercharging for a swathe of lower priced opera tickets, missing out on significant extra box office income, or a combination of the two. Last Season, there was a very strong reaction to the £112 charged for Stalls Circle bench seats for Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella, the same price as the Balcony restricted view seats. But for both Nutcracker and Dante this Autumn, the ticket prices for a good seat in the Balcony, albeit with some restrictions because of the safety rail to one side, and Stalls Circle Sides, bench seats with a very poor view, are the same (£108 for Nutcracker and £80 for Dante). For the other ballets (and the operas, excluding Rheingold), Stalls Circle Side bench seats are cheaper by some 15% when compared to the Balcony restricted seats. I must say when I ended up booking an extra Sleeping Beauty performance in a Stalls Circle Sides bench seat, I’d rather assumed it must be a reasonable seat, equivalent to a Balcony restricted seat, because I was paying £112 for it, the same as for the Balcony seat. But the bench seat was poor value for money and I really can’t see any justification for charging the same price for what are two vastly different experiences. I think it’s worth emphasising the unfairness of these prices in more detail. Ballet audiences for Nutcracker are charged £108 for Stalls Circle Sides bench seats. Opera audiences for all operas save Rheingold pay significantly less in terms of cash (£71 to £86) for the same seat despite the top prices fir all operas being significantly higher than for Nutcracker. Hence in relative terms the Nutcracker price is even more extortionate. Nutcracker audiences pay 68% of the top price. For the four operas, audiences pay 35%. That would equate to £56 for Nutcracker as opposed to the £108 ticket price. I included Amphitheatre Sides Row E in the table above as there have been earlier comments from @bridiem and others. When I first contacted Alex Beard, primarily about the proposed £26 Don Q standing price, I’d mentioned concerns about the Don Q Amphitheatre Sides prices. Having looked at the prices for all productions, Don Q really does stand out with the cheapest tickets in Row E being 35% of the top price. For all other productions the cheapest tickets are some 20% of the top price. For Dante the cheapest seats fall to 16% and are the same price as Slips which looks very odd, in part because Dante has 5 price categories for Row E. Row E also illustrates the complexities that flow from having multiple seat maps. For Don Q there are just 3 prices for that row. (Rigoletto also has 3 prices but isn’t out of step with other operas.) Most productions have 4 prices and as mentioned above Dante includes a 5th price. It seems to me there’s an arbitrariness regrading the allocation of seats to the 3, 4 or 5 price bands in Row E Sides and I’m sure there’s an arbitrariness to seat allocations in many other parts of the theatre. Don Q stands out as regards the price charged for Slips. For all other productions, Slips are some 15% of the top price. Bizarrely the Don Q price is 9% of the top price, £14 the same as the eventual Standing price. I can’t understand why this has been done and it looks like a case of undercharging. It’s worth at this stage looking back to Autumn 2017 when there was one seat map which covered all main house productions, seats being allocated to price categories for the quarter if not the full season. Top prices were set for each production and prices for other seats broadly flowed from those top prices. I think there’s much to be said for one seat map in terms of fairness. Some allocations and pricing looked pretty sensible. The Balcony restricted view seats weren’t as heavily discounted and the Stalls Circle bench seats were significantly less expensive than the Balcony restricted view seats albeit ballet seats were relatively more expensive than opera seats: Autumn 2017 Top Price Balcony Central Block Restricted Row A; Other Rows Stalls Circle Sides Bench Seats (eg B26) Boheme £230 £184; £97 £73 80%; 42% 32% Nutcracker £125 £106; £74 £59 85%; 59% 47% Conclusions from Autumn pricing From the analysis of Autumn 2023 prices, it seems to me there were a number of ‘mis-steps’, not just the Don Q standing ticket proposal but also: Don Q Amphitheatre Sides (overcharged) and Slips (undercharged); Rigoletto Balcony Centre restricted, Slips and Standing (all overcharged); and Dante Amphitheatre Sides (undercharged). Ballet prices for some medium priced and lower priced tickets seem very expensive relative to opera tickets and on occasions ballet tickets cost more than opera tickets for the same seat. The prices charged for Stalls Circle Sides bench seats for ballet (Nutcracker and Dante and last season’s Sleeping Beaty and Cinderella) are I think the worst example, truly extortionate prices. The proliferation of seat maps has generated enormous confusion and arbitrariness as regards seat allocations. Amphitheatre Sides Row E illustrates the issues with 3, 4 or 5 price categories for 15 seats. I don’t accept that multiple seat maps are necessary for maximising box office revenue when there are so many examples of missed opportunities for increasing revenue. Not just the Don Q Slips and Dante Amphitheatre Sides undercharging ‘mis-steps’ highlighted above as the ROH should also consider: a) Reducing the very generous discounts given to opera tickets compared to ballet tickets probably over a number of years (I say more about this in relation to the benefits of having one seat map below); b) Reducing the discount given to Balcony Central Row A restricted view seats (as was operating in 2017). I think Balcony A33 and A53 must offer the best value for money for opera - 45% of the top price for Rheingold; c) Reviewing the seat map to ensure that all prices are set appropriately - if Don Q and Dante standing tickets are £14, why are Nutcracker standing tickets not £15 rather than the £12 charged? An extra £3 per standing place would have the potential of generating some £4,000 during the Nutcracker run. I accept this won’t be popular but rather than launch a Don Q experiment where prices are way out of step compared to other productions and where we’ve seen how the strong the reaction was, I’d have thought a more reasonable case could be made for increasing the price of the best standing places. An extra £5 for the 30 best standing places would have the potential of generating £30,000 extra box office revenue in a season. Advantages of one seat map I think there’s much to be said for having one seat plan. It helps promote fairness and consistency with seats not being arbitrarily reallocated to different price categories and where audience members can understandably feel aggrieved when finding seats are placed in higher price categories. With a standard pricing model as was used in Autumn 2017, the prices for each production need to be determined and a simple financial model which calculates box revenue from seat prices selected would enable those responsible for proposing prices and those taking decisions to look at the effect of fine tuning prices on overall box office revenue. There is now a very marked difference between the relative prices for opera and ballet performances and I’d have thought through careful analysis of a seat map and financial model, it would be possible to reduce the discounts for opera productions compared to ballet productions, not in one go but staggered over a number of years and not necessarily eliminating the differential pricing in its entirety. But I’m sure reducing the discounts would generate significant additional box office revenue, where simple manipulation of the financial model would give quantification. Internal controls As well as offering comments on pricing, I raised a number of questions about the ROH’s internal control processes which hadn’t picked up the pricing ‘mis-step’. I’ve no idea what processes the ROH operates but good practice might well include ensuring the following are in place: a) There’s a clear statement of pricing policy which might cover: income generation; recovery of costs over a production’s life; an element of fairness where restricted view seats receive similar discounts; and promoting accessibility with x% of tickets being priced at £y or less. As an aside on this point why not have the £y based on 4 times the minimum hourly wage rate or a multiple of living wage, whatever is most appropriate? Such a metric would give the ROH the possibility of seeking to increase the percentage of seats at or below the chosen metric whereas that’s simply not possible with modest inflation, let alone the high levels of inflation we currently experience; b) There’s a credible seat map and consistency in pricing so as to support the pricing policy; c) Responsibilities for proposing and reviewing/approving prices are clearly assigned. I’d like to think that all appropriate teams are consulted on pricing proposals including box office, membership and legacies and I see considerable merit in taking soundings from audience members/Friends; d) And critically, whoever is responsible for pricing presents helpful, comparative analysis to those reviewing/approving prices with summary tables flagging up anomalies, questions and risks. It’s no good simply distributing proposed seat maps and expecting busy people to work out what’s going on and how prices compare production by production. Email correspondence continues but I thought I should at least give an update of the issues raised. The Winter Magazine should be published fairly soon as Premium 2 Friends Booking opens 5th September (and Patrons can book before then) so we should see Winter prices published at some point in August although I guess we’ll probably have to wait for the seat maps.

Many thanks @oncnp. Bizarrely the link I posted works for me and I’m not signed in at ROH - I was when I copied the link.

I’m very unsure about tickets being held back for general booking. I don’t recall seeing any seats not on sale other than the grey Friday Rush seats but I suppose if I’d clicked on some of the multicoloured seats looking as if they were for sale I might have received a ‘not available’ message although I think any ‘not available’ messages I might have received would probably be where others had put the tickets in their baskets.

Here’s the seat map for 23 December matinee: https://www.roh.org.uk/seatmap?performanceId=54528 I’m afraid all the Grand Tier boxes look sold. There are a couple of pairs of Stalls seats - C24&25 and E26&27. C24 & E26 are aisle seats so the view from those seats is good. But as others have said there’s not much of a rake for the first 6 or so rows in the Stalls. There’s also A28&29 but these are right in the corner. I do hope you’re successful in getting good tickets.

I see Lise Davidsen has a Wigmore Hall recital on 13 October - Grieg, Berg, Schubert and Sibelius. I’m just hoping it’s broadcast as I’ve already booked a favourite seat for Don Quixote that evening.

Hopefully we’ll find out fairly soon if a recording is made available. I’m afraid I hadn’t realised there is a new RBS Members scheme - I’m sure there are important emails that I don’t pay sufficient attention to. I certainly enjoyed watching Yondering several times last year having been very taken with the live performance.

Hugely enjoyed yesterday’s annual performance. Highlights for me were the Mozart Sechs Tanze, brilliantly performed, with I think five of the dancers joining the Royal Ballet’s Aud Jebsen Programme (there is a sixth), and Takademe, an astonishing performance by Caspar Lench (one of the five in the Mozart). I was rather taken with the Romanian folk dances performed by the White Lodge students, not just the dancing but the panache they displayed with their percussion sticks. Always good to see a Two Pigeons extract, the closing Pas de deux, albeit no pigeons on this occasion. And of course the Grand Defile brought the house down. I did wonder whether the balance was quite right: modern pieces predominated and were excellently performed whereas I thought dancers seemed not quite as at ease in the more classical pieces. Congratulations to all students and the staff who joined the curtain call before leaving the stage to the dancers and conductor Paul Murphy. I see the performance has been filmed so hopefully it will be made available to Royal Ballet School Friends as last year.