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In Reply to: RE: Big B and I (and our wives) are off to LA tomorrow. . . posted by Thornhill on May 24, 2012 at 18:13:25
It's a safe guess that at least 80% of each nite's audience (at the Met, Covent Garden, LaScala, you name it) are seeing an opera production for the first time, or maybe the second. At $200+ per seat, they don't feel jaded quite yet and expect a reasonable facsimile of the composer's intentions. This is particularly true of, and important with Wagner, whose stage directions must be followed explicitly, or the story and music don't fit together and the evening makes no sense.
A recent SFSO Rheingold had Fafner kill Fasolt with a sword (while the music clearly describes heavy blows from a cudgel). Later, the Gods pass into Valhalla through what appears to be a wedding portal. That's right, no Rainbow Bridge. One of the greatet moments in opera becomes pointless puzzlement.
Bayreuth has been an expensive travesty for decades now. Having a backdrop of flashing red LED's stand in for the fiery end of the Gods and overflow of the Rhein? Just for the sake of what, novelty?
We shall see how adaptable Mozart staging can be with this new LA production. I hope I won't feel shortchanged like so many operagoers nowadays.
Follow Ups:
It's a safe guess that at least 80% of each nite's audience (at the Met, Covent Garden, LaScala, you name it) are seeing an opera production for the first time, or maybe the second.I highly doubt it's that many, and challenge you to find that statistic. In fact, data has recently released indicates it's more like only 10% or 20% of the Met's audience is seeing an opera production for the first time on any given night.
With the whole Opera Guild snafu the other day, the NYTimes reported that the magazine has a circulation of 100,000, and more than half of those people receive the magazine as a result of being a Met Opera donor. It seems likely that almost everyone who donates money to the Met is seeing at least one opera a year (and I bet most of those donors are either subscribers or seeing several operas because being a donor allows you to get preferential ticketing treatment). And of course, this doesn't count people who go but do not donate.
The Met has an annual attendance of 800,000. Like I said before, those 50k+ donors are likely all going to at least 1 opera. Let's say the average donor goes to an average of 4 opera performances a year (the main subscription packages are for 6 to 8 operas, and the mini packages are mostly 4, but sometimes 3 and 5), and each one of those donors represents a couple. So that's 2 x 50k x 4 = 400,000. So half of the Met attendance is likely made up of people seeing multiple operas a year. And remember, that does not include people who have seen opera at other houses but are going to the Met for the first time, or go to the Met less than once a year.
But despite all of this math, to remain the #1 opera house in the world, you cannot design your productions for first time opera goers -- that's pandering. Each production should strive for artistic excellence and to challenge audiences. The beauty of being a non-profit performing arts is that you can take risks -- because you're highly subsidized by donations you don't have to worry about selling every seat at every show like Broadway has to.
Edits: 05/24/12
Let's see: I've seen productions in Munich (many), Salzburg, Vienna, Berlin, Covent Garden, Rome, LaScala, the Met (twice), L.A. and San Francisco. Everyone in the ticket line, or seated near me, whom I bothered to ask had never seen that nite's opera before.
I know no one other than critics and a few extremely bored operaphiles who spend big money just because they have to see some new production. Like most people I want great conducting, fine orchestral playing, and above all, great singing. Productions are unimportant unless they interfere with getting the story across, as happens so often now with Wagner (you really want the Dutchman to be gay, Sachs a pedophile, or similar outlandish stuff? Be my guest.)
Let's see: I've seen productions in Munich (many), Salzburg, Vienna, Berlin, Covent Garden, Rome, LaScala, the Met (twice), L.A. and San Francisco. Everyone in the ticket line, or seated near me, whom I bothered to ask had never seen that nite's opera before.I'm sorry, but observational data is meaningless. I've been a subscriber to the Met Opera for 6 years; compared to the people who sit around me, I'm a virgin -- I've met countless people who've have subscriptions since the early 1980s. But I'm not going to claim that's representative of the house on all nights.
We have hard data with the Met -- an accurate estimate of their number of donors -- and in the performing arts field, the only individuals who give you money are the people who attend your shows (as someone who works in the performing arts, I can speak with some authority on this).
I know no one other than critics and a few extremely bored operaphiles who spend big money just because they have to see some new production.
What does that have to do with anything? Many, many people spend more on sports tickets than opera tickets. My Met tickets are $180/seat. Sounds like a lot, but my father's Eagles tickets are only slightly less, there are more home games in a season than shows in a Met subscription, and when the team is playing the Giants or the Cowboys, he has no problem getting 2 to 3 times face value for the tickets (and for Monday night games, the sky is the limit).
Productions are unimportant
If productions are unimportant then people would dispense with them and just do in-concert opera.
Edits: 05/24/12
If a production is counter to the composer's explicit directions, does not convey story content, or presents a perverse, contrived, or mostly incomplete version of the work's message, it should never be staged in the first place, nor is it likely to endure.
I think this is what Chris means by "Eurotrash" direction, a waste of everyone's time and money.
won't be "disappointed" by anything resembling novelty, imagination, or innovation.
"Say Mr. Picasso, could you just paint me one of those pink ones, please?"
...that the novelty, imagination and innovation is executed at the expense of tradition and historical accuracy. Instead of mucking with classic art, the contemporary productions should start with NEW music and NEW operas -- expand the art form, rather than taking the lazy route and doing half the job. Let's deface the Mona Lisa and call it postmodernism. That way, we can call a crime art.
nt
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