Tempting offer from Royal Opera House

Yes, ENO aren't the only opera house having trouble filling seats.

The Royal Opera House is offering a big 10% off any ticket priced above £30 for three productions: Die Zauberflöte, La donna del lago and Don Carlo.

Yes, Don Carlo with Jonas Kaufmann in it.

There's now hardly any availability for the Kaufmann dates, but plenty for the two last shows where Roberto Aronica takes his place. About 10% of seats remain for La donna del lago; Die Zauberflöte has plenty unsold at all price levels.

That's if you can get through of course - the ROH website wouldn't take my payment earlier today, and I know loads of other people have been having problems. I heard an unconfirmed rumour that the new booking system cost the ROH (or rather the taxpayer) half a million quid. If that's true, they've been fleeced.

So, the code.....

It's spring31, and you need to enter it on the top right hand corner of the seat selection page before you select your seat, which will make the discounted price come up after a seat has been chosen.

Whether puny discounts like 10% actually help sales, or merely make it obvious Covent Garden are struggling to fill seats is of course anybody's guess.