The "new" Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

[David]

I may be wrong but I get the impression that it is the Royal Opera that is being most hard-hit by the new ticket marketing strategies. There seem to be  a considerable number of unsold tickets for Traviata, Pique Dame and Cosi fan Tutte - surely more than one would expect in this stage in the Winter Season booking process?  Or are people finally tiring of all these European Regietheater Directors as I did under the stewardship of Kasper Holten - tho that doesn't explain Richard Eyre's long proven Traviata?

[Ian Macmillan]

And over at the Barbican:

 

https://twitter.com/LezBrotherston/status/1071103915482058752

 

[David]

Yes it has to be something very very special to get me over to the Barbican these days. I still spend time on the South Bank tho - and am part. pleased to have got a couple of tickets for Cate Blanchett and George Benjamin's A Team at the Dorfman!

Edited December 8, 2018 by David

[Vanartus]

Not sure where this moan fits in so I’ll just moan here: I am NOT prepared to pay £55 including the 5% discount for a side amphitheater seat for any performance of R&J. So no Hayward/Corrales and no Osipova/Hallberg. OK - nose/spite/face but I’m sorry. What I will be seeing is the live broadcast of Naghdi/Ball in Berlin for €20. And the money I’ll save I’ll spend at Sadlers for San Francisco Ballet. Grrrrrowl!

Edited December 8, 2018 by Vanartus

[Fonty]

2 hours ago, Ian Macmillan said:

And over at the Barbican:

 

https://twitter.com/LezBrotherston/status/1071103915482058752

 

 

I've always found the Barbican to be a soulless place.  I used to go a lot when the Royal Shakespeare Company were permanently in residence there.  Now, unless I see some advance publicity, I don't even think to check to see what's on.

[alison]

11 hours ago, David said:

I may be wrong but I get the impression that it is the Royal Opera that is being most hard-hit by the new ticket marketing strategies. There seem to be  a considerable number of unsold tickets for Traviata, Pique Dame and Cosi fan Tutte - surely more than one would expect in this stage in the Winter Season booking process?  Or are people finally tiring of all these European Regietheater Directors as I did under the stewardship of Kasper Holten - tho that doesn't explain Richard Eyre's long proven Traviata?

 

Maybe it's just been a case of one Traviata too many?  They have been programming it as a cash cow, virtually every year, it seems to me.  Maybe they should give it a rest for a year.  Plus, if I'm getting to the stage where I can't afford to stand for operas, I wonder how many people are feeling the pain of the pricing?

[ninamargaret]

1 hour ago, alison said:

 

Maybe it's just been a case of one Traviata too many?  They have been programming it as a cash cow, virtually every year, it seems to me.  Maybe they should give it a rest for a year.  Plus, if I'm getting to the stage where I can't afford to stand for operas, I wonder how many people are feeling the pain of the pricing?

I'm not an opera buff, but enjoy certain operas, but just can't afford it now, unless I can get somewhere that I can access fairly easily at a price I can just about afford. Must be plenty of people like me who cannot cope with amphi, of the high seats, who are now effectively barred from attending opera unless we can afford upwards of £150!  Elitism or what?

[penelopesimpson]

9 hours ago, ninamargaret said:

I'm not an opera buff, but enjoy certain operas, but just can't afford it now, unless I can get somewhere that I can access fairly easily at a price I can just about afford. Must be plenty of people like me who cannot cope with amphi, of the high seats, who are now effectively barred from attending opera unless we can afford upwards of £150!  Elitism or what?

I am one of them, NinaM.  I cannot cope with the Amphi and the cost of tickets is now getting beyond my reach.  Have more or less decided that after this year, opera will be out.  I find it unbelievable that the Chairman makes fatuous comments about elitism, spends precious funds on a construction project that seems to have little to do with either opera or ballet and then sanctions price hikes that put the tickets beyond the reach of ordinary people.

[Mary]

Yes I am one of many who used to go to both opera and ballet, regularly, but I now only go to opera about once a year because I can't afford it any longer and had to choose: and luckily my favourite art form is the cheaper one...  But Romeo and Juliet  prices mark the watershed for me now- I can't  afford my amphi ballet seats regularly any more. 

I am guessing from other postings on this forum that there are very many people in the same boat.

 

 

 

 

[bridiem]

34 minutes ago, Mary said:

Yes I am one of many who used to go to both opera and ballet, regularly, but I now only go to opera about once a year because I can't afford it any longer and had to choose: and luckily my favourite art form is the cheaper one...  But Romeo and Juliet  prices mark the watershed for me now- I can't  afford my amphi ballet seats regularly any more. 

I am guessing from other postings on this forum that there are very many people in the same boat.

 

I've just looked at the R&J prices for the first time. There are now so few seats in 'my' price band in the Amphi! (And I just told my sister where they were because she wants to book with some friends! So we'll probably be competing for the same tiny number of seats.)

 

AND of course now we know exactly what they're doing, and why. In spite of the denials, it's absolutely clear that they're adjusting the prices of the less expensive seats bought by regulars and so pricing the regulars out of going - er - regularly. At this rate they will end up with an audience where the only 'regulars' are rich.

 

Talk about elitist.

Edited December 9, 2018 by bridiem

[Lizbie1]

40 minutes ago, bridiem said:

And they're gradually getting more and more expensive, except for some triple bills which are effectively being cross-subsidised by the popular full-lengths, which I slightly resent.

 

I wouldn't resent it if so many of the new commissions - and their obligatory second outings - which fill them weren't so duff. "Classic" mixed bills, like the forthcoming Les Patineurs/Winter Dreams/The Concert one or the wonderful all-Ashton triples, aside, there's usually only one part I'm interested in, if that.

 

New commissions just aren't a good enough bet to get me there, and I'm sure that applies to many more casual ballet goers too. (The low, low prices don't really entice me either - getting there in the first place incurs time, hassle and a late night for me.) The Unknown Soldier triple was an automatic "no"*, and while I'm toying with signing up for the Within the Golden Hour/new Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui/Flight Pattern triple, it's only the latter which would get me there: I like Golden Hour well enough, but wouldn't "get out of bed" for it.

 

*I can catch Symphony in C in the Firebird triple

Edited December 9, 2018 by Lizbie1
note about SinC added

[bridiem]

15 minutes ago, Lizbie1 said:

 

I wouldn't resent it if so many of the new commissions - and their obligatory second outings - which fill them weren't so duff. "Classic" mixed bills, like the forthcoming Les Patineurs/Winter Dreams/The Concert one or the wonderful all-Ashton triples, aside, there's usually only one part I'm interested in, if that.

 

New commissions just aren't a good enough bet to get me there, and I'm sure that applies to many more casual ballet goers too. (The low, low prices don't really entice me either - getting there in the first place incurs time, hassle and a late night for me.) The Unknown Soldier triple was an automatic "no"*, and while I'm toying with signing up for the Within the Golden Hour/new Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui/Flight Pattern triple, it's only the latter which would get me there: I like Golden Hour well enough, but wouldn't "get out of bed" for it.

 

*I can catch Symphony in C in the Firebird triple

 

I was actually just editing out my comment about the triple bills, Lizbie1, when you posted this; but I do agree that a lot of triple bills nowadays are insufficiently enticing. But that shouldn't, of course, be the case.

[Lizbie1]

2 minutes ago, bridiem said:

 

... but I do agree that a lot of triple bills nowadays are insufficiently enticing. But that shouldn't, of course, be the case.

 

Sorry, I should have said that I assumed that's what you meant!

[David]

If Mr O'Hare is still planning to build the 20/21 season around new commissions (tho I haven't heard him repeat the pledge recently) there is virtally nothing that will draw me. There was a time when I would have invested if only out of my lifelong commitment to the ROH but the present management have  destroyed that. Much of the more exciting new work over the past decade has been undertaken by other companies and their involvement would interest me. Perhaps he should widen his brief for the 20/21 season to embrace new works across the country along the lines of his excellent MacMillan initiative - and their companies of course!      

[Lizbie1]

23 hours ago, David said:

I may be wrong but I get the impression that it is the Royal Opera that is being most hard-hit by the new ticket marketing strategies. There seem to be  a considerable number of unsold tickets for Traviata, Pique Dame and Cosi fan Tutte - surely more than one would expect in this stage in the Winter Season booking process?  Or are people finally tiring of all these European Regietheater Directors as I did under the stewardship of Kasper Holten - tho that doesn't explain Richard Eyre's long proven Traviata?

 

I love Queen of Spades, but the combination of doubtful casting and high prices means I'm giving it a miss. I might be wrong, but I don't think Cosi has the same popularity in this country as the other da Ponte/Mozart operas, and with Thomas Allen being the only recognisable (to me!) name in the cast, I can see why it would sell slowly.

 

As others have said, La Traviata has been treated as a cash cow for a number of seasons, and while there's nothing precisely wrong with the Eyre production, I find it dull - time to replace it? The casting this year is better than previous years at least, but I don't think it merits the prices!

 

I think there are two main things amiss with the Royal Opera: the Kasper Holten legacy, which I suspect has beneath the surface done some financial harm, which they are trying to recoup through cutting corners, overcharging for certain productions and scaling back planned new works and productions; and lazy casting - too often revivals are either cast on autopilot or with whoever happens to be available. KH has gone; will Peter Katona's reign as Casting Director ever end?

 

Mods: sorry if this is too much opera talk, please move if you like!

[Timmie]

On 08/12/2018 at 10:51, David said:

I may be wrong but I get the impression that it is the Royal Opera that is being most hard-hit by the new ticket marketing strategies...

 

You may be right. I'm a potential new opera enthusiast (I went to my first two operas this year) and La Traviata is high on my to-see list but the prices are just too much to justify.

[penelopesimpson]

3 hours ago, Lizbie1 said:

 

I love Queen of Spades, but the combination of doubtful casting and high prices means I'm giving it a miss. I might be wrong, but I don't think Cosi has the same popularity in this country as the other da Ponte/Mozart operas, and with Thomas Allen being the only recognisable (to me!) name in the cast, I can see why it would sell slowly.

 

As others have said, La Traviata has been treated as a cash cow for a number of seasons, and while there's nothing precisely wrong with the Eyre production, I find it dull - time to replace it? The casting this year is better than previous years at least, but I don't think it merits the prices!

 

I think there are two main things amiss with the Royal Opera: the Kasper Holten legacy, which I suspect has beneath the surface done some financial harm, which they are trying to recoup through cutting corners, overcharging for certain productions and scaling back planned new works and productions; and lazy casting - too often revivals are either cast on autopilot or with whoever happens to be available. KH has gone; will Peter Katona's reign as Casting Director ever end?

 

Mods: sorry if this is too much opera talk, please move if you like!

You are SO right.  Antonenko is a nice singer but he pops up at ROH far too often.  I will be taking a second mortgage for Kaufmann next year because he is appearing with Netrebko, and I see the fabulous Opolais is in Tosca, but that will be it for me.

 

As for new ballet works, they are shooting themselves in the foot with this one.  It is the old lags, aka real ballet fans, who loyally turn out come rain or shine but even with lower priced seats, ‘fixed costs’ of travel, food and drink, programmes and, in my case, dog aunties, remain the same so I shall be voting with my feet.  Next season I am seeing precisely nothing as I missed out on Les Patineurs and have no interest in Don Quixote.

 

Isn’t it time we had some new full length commissions from established choreographers with proven track records?

[bridiem]

4 hours ago, David said:

If Mr O'Hare is still planning to build the 20/21 season around new commissions (tho I haven't heard him repeat the pledge recently) there is virtally nothing that will draw me. There was a time when I would have invested if only out of my lifelong commitment to the ROH but the present management have  destroyed that. Much of the more exciting new work over the past decade has been undertaken by other companies and their involvement would interest me. Perhaps he should widen his brief for the 20/21 season to embrace new works across the country along the lines of his excellent MacMillan initiative - and their companies of course!      

 

I'm afraid if he stuck to RB new works it would be a very poor season, and I think he must know that so I'm hoping that idea has been quietly dropped. Involving other companies would be excellent, but unfortunately I suspect problematic for all sorts of reasons (other than for a very short run as for the MacMillan anniversary).

[David]

9 minutes ago, bridiem said:

 Involving other companies would be excellent, but unfortunately I suspect problematic for all sorts of reasons (other than for a very short run as for the MacMillan anniversary).

 

I agree - but even a short run as a celebration of new choreography across the country would be good,

Edited December 9, 2018 by David

[Lizbie1]

5 hours ago, David said:

If Mr O'Hare is still planning to build the 20/21 season around new commissions (tho I haven't heard him repeat the pledge recently) there is virtally nothing that will draw me. There was a time when I would have invested if only out of my lifelong commitment to the ROH but the present management have  destroyed that. Much of the more exciting new work over the past decade has been undertaken by other companies and their involvement would interest me. Perhaps he should widen his brief for the 20/21 season to embrace new works across the country along the lines of his excellent MacMillan initiative - and their companies of course!      

 

The last I saw of the idea was in this piece: https://www.gramilano.com/2015/09/kevin-ohare-interview-its-an-exciting-time-for-the-royal-ballet/. There was already some considerable loosening of the criteria, and the money men might have seen it off by now anyway.

[bridiem]

41 minutes ago, Lizbie1 said:

 

The last I saw of the idea was in this piece: https://www.gramilano.com/2015/09/kevin-ohare-interview-its-an-exciting-time-for-the-royal-ballet/. There was already some considerable loosening of the criteria, and the money men might have seen it off by now anyway.

 

Slightly worrying though that he says 'I've got to do this now'!

[JohnS]

Apologies for going back to ticket prices, particularly for Opera, but I recall the Royal Opera House has made much of a claim that x% of tickets are under £y.

The latest information I could see was in the Annual Report 2016/17

31% of tickets at £30 or less
38% of tickets at £40 or less

47% of tickets at £50 or less 

 

I'm pretty sure this is an overall measure and not 'per performance' so when Triple bills are put on it may well be the case that all tickets for that performance were £50 or less.

 

But it would be very interesting to know what the latest statistics are given general price increases, putting seats in higher price categories and ending matinee discounts.  

 

I also think there would be much merit in publishing separate statistics for Opera and Ballet and by production - what percentage of Romeo & Juliet seats are under £30, £40 and £50?  I think this sort of information is an essential part of demonstrating accessibility or I fear showing that the Opera House is becoming less accessible.  There may be a vicious circle here if Arts Council grant is in anyway linked to ensuring a proportion of tickets are reasonably priced.

 

Whilst Opera prices in general are very high, I still can't get over the difference in ticket price for neighbouring seats - for example Balcony Stalls A53 is half the price of A52 (Tosca - £103 v £206) because there's a safety rail to the right which certainly didn't cause me any problems for the Ring.

Edited December 9, 2018 by JohnS
Typo

[ninamargaret]

If you can get SC A 13-17, and the equivalent on the other side they are, even for opera, just about affordable, with A18 being considerably more expensive. Had A17 for The  Ring and it was fine. Trouble is there are only these 10 seats at that price and they're practically impossible to get.

[alison]

2 hours ago, JohnS said:

Whilst Opera prices in general are very high, I still can't get over the difference in ticket price for neighbouring seats - for example Balcony Stalls A53 is half the price of A52 (Tosca - £103 v £206) because there's a safety rail to the right which certainly didn't cause me any problems for the Ring.

 

Ssshhhh!!! They'll hear you!

[RuthE]

On ‎08‎/‎12‎/‎2018 at 22:15, alison said:

 

Maybe it's just been a case of one Traviata too many?  They have been programming it as a cash cow, virtually every year, it seems to me.  Maybe they should give it a rest for a year. 

 

They just *have* given it a rest for a year - it was not performed in the 2017/18 season.  (You are right, however, that it - like Nutcracker - is put on most seasons; the last season without it was 2012/13.)

[Blossom]

At Spring prices and with the productions on show, it’s now a choice between R&J and Frankenstein and splashing out as my favoured ‘cheaper’ seats are priced too high and too close to higher priced seats. It will be R&J of course. Is it mean spirited to hope that ticket prices will have to come down if they are to fill up across that hugely long run? 

 

There is a lot I love about the ‘new’ ROH - it’s a wonderful space, the little exhibitions are great although I crave more. I like the daytime events they run. What I am not too keen on is their brand advertising which is incredibly vague and doesn’t really convey reasons to visit. I work in ad agency land but not on the creative side and when I see their ad at my local tube station twice daily it is really starting to bother me!  

[alison]

Yes, I'm afraid those tube adverts are not exactly informative, even if you manage to realise in passing that they relate to the ROH.  Uninviting, and no indication of what they could be inviting you to! 

[Fonty]

15 hours ago, Blossom said:

There is a lot I love about the ‘new’ ROH - it’s a wonderful space, the little exhibitions are great although I crave more. I like the daytime events they run. What I am not too keen on is their brand advertising which is incredibly vague and doesn’t really convey reasons to visit. I work in ad agency land but not on the creative side and when I see their ad at my local tube station twice daily it is really starting to bother me!  

 

I had a moan about those adverts a while ago.  To think they are spending money on some sort of "artistic" squiggle that really says nothing to nobody.  It makes me angry that they appear to have money to waste.  

[FLOSS]

 I can understand that the cut in the ACE grant has had an impact on prices for both opera and ballet but in the past the need to raise revenue was dealt with by the simple expedient pf raising ticket prices across the board at the beginning of the season not with the sort of jiggery-pokery, price manipulation and mind games which the Marketing Department is currently employing.

 

As far as the opera is concerned I am afraid that most of its problems are self inflicted. While it is true that operas cost a lot to stage and the drop in the value of the pound will not have helped the company's finances the real problem with the opera company lies largely with the decisions which have been made with respect to pensioning off old still serviceable productions and replacing them with exceptionally poor ones. It is arguable whether the organisation which stages opera at Covent Garden is a company at all as it consists of little more than a chorus, an orchestra and support services reduced to a bare minimum with no comprimario singers or really experienced in-house singers. In balletic terms this is the equivalent of an organisation which is essentially a corps de ballet an orchestra and ballet coaches without any soloists, first soloists and principal dancers claiming to be a ballet company'

 

Depending on how you look at things the opera company has either had an extraordinary run of bad luck as far as its new productions are concerned or it has been run incompetently. However you look at things since the 2011-12 season it has managed to stage more than forty new productions very few of which anyone would willingly pay to see again. Both the Carmen and the Cosi  being revived this season fall into that category. The reason why ticket sales for them have been so poor has nothing to do with the  local audience disliking Cosi or Carmen as operas. There were plenty of people who naively were looking forward to a new Cosi when it was staged in 2016-17 but after seeing it do not want to repeat the experience. I am one of them. Staging a new opera production. like staging a new ballet or a new play is always a bit of a gamble because you don't know whether it really works until it has been placed in front of a live paying audience. But to stage so many new productions and have so few which are genuinely revivable takes some doing. A well run opera house should, at any one time, have at its disposal any number of good revivable productions of core repertory works which will still draw audiences and a few classic productions which even the most demanding of singers will be happy to appear in. The Zefferelli  Tosca was just such a production as were the Visconti Don Carlos, the Mosshinskey Peter Grimes and the Copley La Boheme, and of these, only the latter production was built to last. When it was commissioned the director and designer were told that their Boheme had to last at least as long as the production it was replacing. Such productions enable a company to undertake worthy efforts such as taking a calculated risk by staging works like Henze's Boulevard Solitude  which are unlikely to sell out. The ROH staging of Don Carlos and the full evening Les Troyens in the 1950's both started as calculated risks which paid off  and helped to establish the prestige of the company .and raised it in less thantwenty five years to being seen as a world class company. Solid revvable bankable productions are an essential element of a company in financial and artistic good health as they guarantee a company a regular income stream season after season.

 

A well run opera house should not need to make repeated trips to the bargain basement for its casts nor does it need to import its comprimario singers from half way round the world. It ought to be able to bank on at least 50% of its new productions  being sufficiently good to justify one or more revival and a few being so good that they will make it to a third revival, the point at which a production begins to go into profit.Unfortunately very few of the Royal Opera's new productions have risen much above the level of third rate provincialism. The new productions tend to be ones in which the director ignores the guidance provided by the composer and librettist and replaces the opera  they composed in their naivety , with the work they would have created if they had possessed the superior sensibilities and knowledge of the director. This may sound incredible but when it came to staging a new Idomeneo the opera management engaged a director who actually wrote in his programme notes that he disliked the opera and proceeded to demonstrate it with the production he staged. In replacing its older marketable productions it has staged any number of "exciting", "challenging", "accessible" and "relevant" productions but it has staged very few that bear repeated viewing let alone ones which people might look forward to seeing revived. Each failed new production represents money thrown down the drain and a great deal of money has been thrown away in recent years. As a result the opera organisation must be losing considerably more money than it can realistically hope to recoup in the immediate future. Evidence that the opera side of the organisation is in a bad way and that it is not that highly esteemed company it considers itself to be is provided by the fact that its new Lohengrin, with a good cast, failed to sell out and the first revival of its new La Boheme played to a half empty house at a weekend matinee at the end of its initial season. The fact that last summer was an exceptionally good one is no explanation for a poor house as keen opera goers ignore both good and bad weather if a work is being performed which they want to see. 

 

As far as La Traviata is concerned it is a pretty dull affair which just feels as if comes back annually. It is just possible that it has all but exhausted its potential audience in London and beyond. High ticket prices do not help to sell performances in old productions which are not classics of their kind. What the management laughingly described as Carmen bore little resemblance to the opera which Tchaikovsky described as a perfect opera. The new Boheme is a poor thing which did not sell out on its second appearance at the end of its initial season. The new Lohengrin was daft but not objectionable. Against the background of years of poor productions and the hike in ticket prices I don't think that it is any wonder that Pique Dame is not selling that well. Tchaikovsky seems to play a significant part in the staging of his opera which does not bode that well.

 

I think that nearly everyone who has posted on this topic has expressed concern about the policies which the marketing department is pursuing. I don't think that I am looking back on the past with rose coloured spectacles but my memory of the old pre-closure opera house,  was that its audience was far more socially and economically diverse and local than it is at present as far as the Amphitheatre audience was concerned. But then the management did not behave as if they were running a business.Ticket prices for the upper part of the house were kept affordable with the posh part of the house bearing the brunt of any price increases which were needed. This was a deliberate policy as both David Webster and his immediate successor wanted to keep the building genuinely accessible to those with a real love of opera and ballet. Performances were genuinely accessible to ordinary people on ordinary incomes. Postmen, shop workers, railway workers, secretaries, nurses, teachers and students could afford to attend performances. It did no cost an arm and a leg  to try opera or ballet for the first time or to experiment with unfamiliar composers and choreographers  because you were not going to bankrupt yourself in the process. Perhaps it is simply the fact that the newly Opened Up Opera House was unveiled at the time that we became aware of the jiggery-pokery being employed by the  Marketing Department in its ticket pricing policy  but somehow it does not feel as if the people running the newly refurbished opera house are as concerned with the needs of their core audience as they are with generating income at every turn. It is not simply that the new public areas still look and feel like an artist's impression of "Open Up". It is almost as if with its airport terminal look the ROH organisation is more concerned with processing people and parting them from their money than it is with the artistic activity in the building.Now while it may be true that last time I looked the large white stuccoed building on Bow Street was being still being described as an " opera house" rather than "Beard's Eatery"  or "Alec's Grub " its anonymous airport style design and its bland, beige, boring décor in the new public areas suggests that its primary function is to feed and water passing tourists and get as much money out of them as it can. If you were cynical you might think that the entire "Open Up" project was only ever intended to give the illusion of accessibility to those not already in the know about ballet and opera while the management was actually trying to restore its pre-war exclusivity based on the ability to pay.

 

 

Edited December 12, 2018 by FLOSS

[alison]

FLOSS, I'm highly tempted to copy that over to the Opera section and see what happens!

[Dawnstar]

1 hour ago, FLOSS said:

As far as the opera is concerned I am afraid that most of its problems are self inflicted. While it is true that operas cost a lot to stage and the drop in the value of the pound will not have helped the company's finances the real problem with the opera company lies largely with the decisions which have been made with respect to pensioning off old still serviceable productions and replacing them with exceptionally poor ones. It is arguable whether the organisation which stages opera at Covent Garden is a company at all as it consists of little more than a chorus, an orchestra and support services reduced to a bare minimum with no comprimario singers or really experienced in-house singers. In balletic terms this is the equivalent of an organisation which is essentially a corps de ballet an orchestra and ballet coaches without any soloists, first soloists and principal dancers claiming to be a ballet company'

 

Depending on how you look at things the opera company has either had an extraordinary run of bad luck as far as its new productions are concerned or it has been run incompetently. However you look at things since the 2011-12 season it has managed to stage more than forty new productions very few of which anyone would willingly pay to see again. Both the Carmen and the Cosi  being revived this season fall into that category. The reason why ticket sales for them have been so poor has nothing to do with the  local audience disliking Cosi or Carmen as operas. There were plenty of people who naively were looking forward to a new Cosi when it was staged in 2016-17 but after seeing it do not want to repeat the experience. I am one of them. Staging a new opera production. like staging a new ballet or a new play is always a bit of a gamble because you don't know whether it really works until it has been placed in front of a live paying audience. But to stage so many new productions and have so few which are genuinely revivable takes some doing. A well run opera house should, at any one time, have at its disposal any number of good revivable productions of core repertory works which will still draw audiences and a few classic productions which even the most demanding of singers will be happy to appear in.

 

 

This is a brilliant post, FLOSS. I've only been operagoing at the ROH for 14 years, not long compared to many on here, but even in that time the productions in the last few years seem to be noticeably less appealing, with this season particularly bad. Up until this season I had not seen the Royal Ballet live because by the time I'd paid for seeing several operas a year (SC restricted view but still £50+ per ticket) I didn't feel I could justify ballet too. This season there are so few operas I want to see (thus far only Simon Boccanegra, which is a longstanding & traditional production, & nothing else till April) that I've finally got round to seeing the RB! At least with the RB productions if you book for a "traditional" ballet then you seem pretty safe in getting a production which is comprehensible & attractive, which cannot be said for an awful lot of the recent opera productions.

Edited December 12, 2018 by Dawnstar

[David]

A masterly exposition that expresses what many of us are feeling and have been trying to say. Thank you Floss.

[Mary]

1 hour ago, FLOSS said:

If you were cynical you might think that the entire "Open Up" project was only ever intended to give the illusion of accessibility to those not already in the know about ballet and opera while the management was actually trying to restore its pre-war exclusivity based on the ability to pay.

I think a lot of us have said the same- we must be a terribly cynical bunch........either that or it's the sad truth.

I am not sure who could be deceived though- unless the absurd notion of 'footfall'- I think it's called - is in play- which apparently gives an institution some credit from the Arts Council just for people traipsing through even when they are not engaging at all with what it actually does.