ROH Autumn 23 booking

[Blossom]

1 hour ago, Dawnstar said:

I can't decide whether to hope the side stalls circle bench seats are £49 or fear that they're £63....

If these are the row C restricted view, they are priced at £52 for Don Q.

[Dawnstar]

2 hours ago, Blossom said:

If these are the row C restricted view, they are priced at £52 for Don Q.

 

Yes so relative to that price then £49 for Manon seems reasonable, given the MacMillans are usually less expensive than the classics. However those same seats were £58 for Mayerling last season so relative to that £63 seems more likely.

[JNC]

Unless I’ve misunderstood looks like Manon is only just cheaper than DQ (assuming the seat banding splits stay the same) which is very disheartening and disappointing.

 

DQ is a massive increase on previous prices (even more so than the just post lockdown pricing I think) and so I really do wonder if they are confident they can sell seats at these prices. I presume they wouldn’t want to share (and wouldn’t be obliged to) % of seats sold at discount for various performances? 
 

I’ve heard that opera costs more to stage than ballet but ballet sells quicker/is more popular so I presume that’s why ballet at this point is “subsidising” opera. For me I’m less bothered about the top prices charged (there’s an element of sky’s the limit here for those who can afford it) but would like to see mid-amphi and sides (not slips) be under £50, not £60+. I don’t mind bigger jumps in pricing as long as there’s enough seats priced more fairly that aren’t restricted or right at the back of the amphi. 

[MJW]

Thank you @JohnS for that very detailed price comparison. It would be very interesting to know on what basis ROH does price its seating other than via the use of a tombola !

 

Its a shame there is so little direct two-way communication between ROH management and the visiting public. Perhaps if there was, management wouldn't get itself in such a predicament. 

 

 

[zxDaveM]

10 hours ago, MJW said:

It would be very interesting to know on what basis ROH does price its seating other than via the use of a tombola !

 

 

ah - the hi-tech solution 😉

[Emeralds]

I think they could be trying to follow the house price scenario- “a property is worth how much someone is willing to pay for it”. Judging by past box office performance, ballet patrons are willing to pay for ballet. Opera- depends on the cast and the show. On the plus side, RO & RB are doing way better at the box office than some other performing arts shows.

 

I suspect those seat prices for ballet have gone up because in the past, they’ve sold out or sold faster (or both) than other areas in the auditorium, even in comparison to opera. So the finance/box office/leadership teams feel those seats have the most potential to go up in price to bring  more revenue in. I’m sure they’re aware that one reason why they sell well is that seats like bench seats or tickets like SCS sell fast simply because they’re relatively cheap but you can still see enough of the performance while putting up with some lack of comfort.

 

However if the prices go up much too high, then there’s no point left in buying them and they’ll be left unsold. ROH will be losing 9% of their taxpayer funding due to the Arts Council cut, and they still have a shortfall from the pandemic closures to make up, hence the desperation to increase prices. Also, by getting rid of some advertising platforms (large posters on the Tube & rail stations which used to have sponsor names in prominent letters, season brochures that also ran ads, loss of cast sheets leading to fewer people buying programmes all leading to a drop in revenue from those sources) they are having to find ways to earn money....hence the hiking of seat prices.

 

The problem with this method is that patrons might just not pay if prices are too high, leaving those seats unfilled altogether. My feeling is that the current prices for Don Q, Anemoi and Dante are too optimistic on their part. And unless they can tempt some high profile artists eg Alessandra Ferri, Carlos Acosta, Irek Mukhamedov etc to guest in Dante, or indeed Cellist/Anemoi, those prices could lead to lots of unsold seats - their core audiences for Anemoi/Cellist and Dante have mostly seen the three ballets already, and those who haven’t won’t stretch out to as many performances as what they’ve programmed, and newcomers are unlikely to fork out so much on works they don’t know.

 

Nutcracker, while admittedly very high priced for many regular loyal supporters, I have to say is priced just right to increase their income without being over optimistic. I assume Swan Lake price rises will follow similar  price rises as Nutcracker, which is logical - it does sell out.

Edited August 1, 2023 by Emeralds

[JohnS]

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.

 

 

 

 

[Lizbie1]

14 minutes ago, JohnS said:

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.

 

Thar Electra Slips price is very strange. Do you have the other Slips prices for Electra? I usually sit there so am interested in whether the high price carries through to the cheaper Slips tickets.

[capybara]

6 hours ago, Emeralds said:

I think they could be trying to follow the house price scenario- “a property is worth how much someone is willing to pay for it”. Judging by past box office performance, ballet patrons are willing to pay for ballet. Opera- depends on the cast and the show. On the plus side, RO & RB are doing way better at the box office than some other performing arts shows.

 

I suspect those seat prices for ballet have gone up because in the past, they’ve sold out or sold faster (or both) than other areas in the auditorium, even in comparison to opera. So the finance/box office/leadership teams feel those seats have the most potential to go up in price to bring  more revenue in. I’m sure they’re aware that one reason why they sell well is that seats like bench seats or tickets like SCS sell fast simply because they’re relatively cheap but you can still see enough of the performance while putting up with some lack of comfort.

 

However if the prices go up much too high, then there’s no point left in buying them and they’ll be left unsold. ROH will be losing 9% of their taxpayer funding due to the Arts Council cut, and they still have a shortfall from the pandemic closures to make up, hence the desperation to increase prices. Also, by getting rid of some advertising platforms (large posters on the Tube & rail stations which used to have sponsor names in prominent letters, season brochures that also ran ads, loss of cast sheets leading to fewer people buying programmes all leading to a drop in revenue from those sources) they are having to find ways to earn money....hence the hiking of seat prices.

 

The problem with this method is that patrons might just not pay if prices are too high, leaving those seats unfilled altogether. My feeling is that the current prices for Don Q, Anemoi and Dante are too optimistic on their part. And unless they can tempt some high profile artists eg Alessandra Ferri, Carlos Acosta, Irek Mukhamedov etc to guest in Dante, or indeed Cellist/Anemoi, those prices could lead to lots of unsold seats - their core audiences for Anemoi/Cellist and Dante have mostly seen the three ballets already, and those who haven’t won’t stretch out to as many performances as what they’ve programmed, and newcomers are unlikely to fork out so much on works they don’t know.

 

Nutcracker, while admittedly very high priced for many regular loyal supporters, I have to say is priced just right to increase their income without being over optimistic. I assume Swan Lake price rises will follow similar  price rises as Nutcracker, which is logical - it does sell out.

 

The Cellist and Anemoi are both fully cast already.

[Bluebird]

An intriguing email just received from the ROH:

 

We look forward to welcoming you to Don Quixote on 7 November. 

For your awareness, we have taken all remaining seats off sale for reasons we are excited to announce in the coming weeks. Please be assured that this will have no impact on your booking or on your experience of the performance.

[capybara]

19 minutes ago, Bluebird said:

An intriguing email just received from the ROH:

 

We look forward to welcoming you to Don Quixote on 7 November. 

For your awareness, we have taken all remaining seats off sale for reasons we are excited to announce in the coming weeks. Please be assured that this will have no impact on your booking or on your experience of the performance.

It’s the cinema relay performance!

Talk about pressing a button on the rumour mill!

 

 

Edited August 1, 2023 by capybara

[Guest oncnp]

15 minutes ago, Bluebird said:

An intriguing email just received from the ROH:

 

We look forward to welcoming you to Don Quixote on 7 November. 

For your awareness, we have taken all remaining seats off sale for reasons we are excited to announce in the coming weeks. Please be assured that this will have no impact on your booking or on your experience of the performance.

Just 7 November, I wonder? 

[Guest oncnp]

4 minutes ago, capybara said:

It’s the cinema relay performance!

Talk about pressing a button on the rumour mill!

Now being shown as "invited audience" 

[JohnS]

1 hour ago, Lizbie1 said:

 

Thar Electra Slips price is very strange. Do you have the other Slips prices for Electra? I usually sit there so am interested in whether the high price carries through to the cheaper Slips tickets.

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

[bridiem]

29 minutes ago, oncnp said:

Now being shown as "invited audience" 

 

That obviously can't be wholly true since quite a lot of people will already have booked for it. Strange.

Edited August 1, 2023 by bridiem

[Lizbie1]

37 minutes ago, JohnS said:

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

 

I was puzzling over the switch to English spelling!

[Guest oncnp]

40 minutes ago, bridiem said:

 

That obviously can't be wholly true since quite a lot of people will already have booked for it. Strange.

Perhaps they are going have something like the "Christmas Treat" with the remaining tickets? DonQ is ( I think) the perfect starter ballet.

Edited August 1, 2023 by oncnp

[Dawnstar]

Oh great, I was intending to book for that performance. Since there are only 2 performances for that cast, and the other one is the half term Saturday matinee, it is not exactly helpful of the ROH to make that performance unavailable only the evening before public booking opens. Maybe I will have to only see that cast at the cinema then.

[JohnS]

 

1 hour ago, Lizbie1 said:

 

I was puzzling over the switch to English spelling!

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

Edited August 1, 2023 by JohnS
Extraneous text

[Blossom]

3 hours ago, Bluebird said:

An intriguing email just received from the ROH:

 

We look forward to welcoming you to Don Quixote on 7 November. 

For your awareness, we have taken all remaining seats off sale for reasons we are excited to announce in the coming weeks. Please be assured that this will have no impact on your booking or on your experience of the performance.

Seemingly this didn’t go to all of us who booked for 7 Nov. 
Intriguing- previously it looked like the whole left side of the seating map had been blocked out for something which I assumed was a sponsor partner/NHS/Young ROH performance. This email makes it sound more intriguing. This was my expensive booking night so I do hope that final sentence is true!!l I don’t want anything to compromise Magri/Corrales!

[Angela Essex]

Good evening! I’m hoping that some kind person would please let me know the pricing structure for Don Quixote? I’ve looked on the roh website but I can’t see it on there. I’m not a friend so I’m trying to figure out what I can afford before general booking opens tomorrow morning and any assistance would be very gratefully received. I’m ideally looking to book 3/11 or 17/11 so if anyone can give me a steer on the availability for those performances please I’d would be extremely grateful. Thank you. 

Edited August 1, 2023 by Angela Essex

[alison]

On 31/07/2023 at 09:18, JohnS said:

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.

 

Heaven forbid!  We're already talking increases of something like 50% on the standing tickets.  The last thing we need is any further increases, as those would be approaching 100%, I think.  And anyway, Nutcracker standing tickets don't sell well - there are usually loads left for public booking.  OTOH, they could reduce the price on the rubbish standing tickets.

[JohnS]

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.

 

[jmhopton]

Where are you looking to sit, Angela? There appears to be a good spread of availability for both, though no SC standing unless any are kept back for public booking.

 

Like Bluebird says, seat map for 7th Nov is greyed out so no tickets can be purchased. Coupled with the mysterious email it must mean more than just a cinema broadcast, but what? I'm hopefully seeing Magri/Coralles in their earlier performance which is also down as being filmed for back up presumably, but does this mysterious behaviour mean a cast change? Special guests? I do hope not as I was looking forward to seeing them at the cinema with friends as well as at the ROH.

[JNC]

It is an intriguing email but probably gives a less positive reaction than ROH think!

 

it’s very frustrating for people who plan in advance in preparation for booking date to not have a performance available.

 

If it’s something like a guest star then why is this opportunity to book tickets not open to all (admittedly maybe they are planning to open up tickets on sale for a later date to everyone). If a guest star this exciting enough to half ticket sales, presumably either Corrales or Magri will be getting bumped off the ticket, which is unfair to them given they do only have 2 performances.

 

I appreciate at this stage speculation is probably unhelpful so let’s just wait and see what ROH say. But I think some speculation could have been avoided by keeping the email more neutral perhaps (essentially the same email but without the word excited!) as what’s exciting to one person is annoying/frustrating/anticlimactic to another! 

[Emeralds]

4 hours ago, Bluebird said:

An intriguing email just received from the ROH:

 

We look forward to welcoming you to Don Quixote on 7 November. 

For your awareness, we have taken all remaining seats off sale for reasons we are excited to announce in the coming weeks. Please be assured that this will have no impact on your booking or on your experience of the performance.

That’s intriguing indeed! Maybe they are putting people in the remaining seats to do interviews from the seats for the cinema relay. SkyArts has done that for some filmed performances. Or maybe it will be a part invited audience (like the Paul Hamlyn or Taylor Foundation performances) and part general booking audience.

 

I don’t think it will be a guest star on stage as that won’t affect the seats available for booking but a star in the audience is possible (probably not in every single greyed out seat though).  I’m not too bothered as I can’t come that day anyway, but will wait and see what they eventually announce. 😁

Edited August 1, 2023 by Emeralds

[Angela Essex]

9 minutes ago, jmhopton said:

Where are you looking to sit, Angela? There appears to be a good spread of availability for both, though no SC standing unless any are kept back for public booking.

 

Like Bluebird says, seat map for 7th Nov is greyed out so no tickets can be purchased. Coupled with the mysterious email it must mean more than just a cinema broadcast, but what? I'm hopefully seeing Magri/Coralles in their earlier performance which is also down as being filmed for back up presumably, but does this mysterious behaviour mean a cast change? Special guests? I do hope not as I was looking forward to seeing them at the cinema with friends as well as at the ROH.

Thank you for replying @jmhopton I’m looking to 2 tickets and to get the best seats I can for up to £60 per seat. 

[Guest oncnp]

48 minutes ago, Angela Essex said:

Good evening! I’m hoping that some kind person would please let me know the pricing structure for Don Quixote? I’ve looked on the roh website but I can’t see it on there. I’m not a friend so I’m trying to figure out what I can afford before general booking opens tomorrow morning and any assistance would be very gratefully received. I’m ideally looking to book 3/11 or 17/11 so if anyone can give me a steer on the availability for those performances please I’d would be extremely grateful. Thank you. 

 

 

Edited August 1, 2023 by oncnp

[Emeralds]

3 hours ago, bridiem said:

 

That obviously can't be wholly true since quite a lot of people will already have booked for it. Strange.

Maybe they mean that those who booked in advance for 7 November are warmly invited, while us garden variety punters who don’t have Friends, Friends Plus or Priority Plus Plus or whatever membership are just tolerated. 😆😂 (just joking).  I am guessing that a lot of the taken off sale seats are going to an invited group. Wonder who it is they’re so excited about....😁. 

[Angela Essex]

1 minute ago, oncnp said:

Thank you so much @oncnp @JohnS and @jmhopton

[Guest oncnp]

54 minutes ago, Angela Essex said:

Good evening! I’m hoping that some kind person would please let me know the pricing structure for Don Quixote? I’ve looked on the roh website but I can’t see it on there. I’m not a friend so I’m trying to figure out what I can afford before general booking opens tomorrow morning and any assistance would be very gratefully received. I’m ideally looking to book 3/11 or 17/11 so if anyone can give me a steer on the availability for those performances please I’d would be extremely grateful. Thank you. 

 

 

Edited August 1, 2023 by oncnp

[Peanut68]

6 hours ago, oncnp said:

Now being shown as "invited audience" 

I’m wondering if Nov 7th was proving to be a slow sale day so this is a way of boosting interest? It’s got me hooked! Am defo wanting to get my hands on a ticket for that day - for FOMO reasons as much as just wanting to see the production. 😂

Edited August 1, 2023 by Peanut68

[LinMM]

I’m really annoyed now! (pretty much a huge understatement of how I really feel!) 
This was my number one priority Don Q performance which I was hoping to book tomorrow. I see it now says “sold out” which has only very recently appeared on the website. 
It’s very thoughtless for them to do this just a few hours before booking opens. Especially if as some are suggesting above it may mean a change of cast!! Anyway no guest Artist is worth displacing either Magri or Corrales in this ballet for me!!!! 
The other date for their performance I probably can’t do …so I sort of feel so deflated I can’t be bothered to book anything at all tomorrow now as at this point I just can’t trust what the website says anymore. 
 

Edited August 2, 2023 by LinMM