Opera Holland Park - inspiring or not?

I expressed some reservations about Opera Holland Park's new distribution method for their cheap £12 'Inspire' tickets at the time it was announced. And, wouldn't you know it, my predictions materialised.

For a start, I didn't get all the tickets I wanted. That I suppose is inevitable whenever demand exceeds supply. Perhaps that's because the new system made the distribution 'fairer' (whatever that means) - I certainly hope so.

I've missed out at the Royal Opera House and Proms too on occasion. But what's different about those two venues is the ability to book online. You can go off and do something else while your computer queues for you. And it doesn't cost you anything if you're unlucky enough to miss out on the tickets you want.

With Opera Holland Park's phone-only booking I spent ages trying to get through (in one case at significant cost) and was still disappointed. That's hardly surprising when a tiny number of box office staff have to deal with hundreds of calls all coming in at once. From my perspective it was a waste of time and money, as I had originally feared. The crazy thing is that Opera Holland Park have a perfectly good online booking system. Unlike previous years, they simply chose not to use it.

The Inspire tickets are of course exceptionally good value at just £12. It makes them extremely popular - especially when the next price up is a whopping £46.50. That's a lot more than I pay anywhere else, even Covent Garden. A price of nearly £50 would be not only a strain on my own finances; it would also make it impossible to tempt an opera novice to join me. One of the terrific things about the Inspire scheme is that it's allowed me to introduce other people to the delights of opera - one of whom has even become a Covent Garden/ENO regular. When regular-priced tickets are four times or more the price of the Inspire tickets, is it any wonder the system is overloaded when the cheap ones go on sale?

Still, at least my experience wasn't as bad as some. This message came from reader Jo: 

"Here's the details of what happened when I tried to book Inspire tickets. On Mon 11th July I started phoning the 0300 999 1000 number at 10am and tried every couple of minutes; I just got the engaged tone or unavailable message until about 11.50 when I got through and was then waiting in the queue to be answered.

 

I was on hold for 5 minutes and then at 11:55am a man answered the phone; he advised me to call 0845 230 9769 for tickets. I asked who he was and he said he wasn't in the booking office but was answering the phone on default. I was really annoyed that he'd answered as he'd removed me from the box office phone queue and  he'd given a premium rate phone number for tickets (the 0300 number is a lower cost charity rate) and I told him that was taking the piss. I was really annoyed and had a Victor Meldrew moment !

 

I phoned Holland Park Opera's admin number and I was told that the 0845 number is no longer in use. I complained about the guy who'd answered the phone and they seemed a bit mystified about who he could be.

 

I had to go to work and I couldn't phone again until mid-afternoon (I share the office with a guy who disapproves of making personal calls in work hours), and by then all the tickets for La Wally were gone and it is all the fault of Mr Mystery Meddler."