enormously gigantic discounts for ROH Niobe

photo: Monika Rittershaus

Proof that the Royal Opera House name alone might not be worth as much as they think it is. Put on an unknown opera by an unknown composer with unknown singers and you end up flogging tickets at less than half price.

Seats for the baroque rarity Niobe on 23 and 25 September are available for just £42 (stalls) and £17 (amphitheatre) via a Twitter offer.

Book online through this link and the reduced prices will come up automatically.

Comments

[Sarah]

I must dispute your 'unknown singers' comment. I have heard Veronique Gens, Iestyn Davies and Alastair Miles each on at least two occasions. Iestyn Davies was the one reason why I might have booked, but I wasn't prepared to pay the original prices and I can't go to the first three performances. Please let me know when the prices are reduced for the later performances!

[RestrictedView]

Just had a flick through the booking screens for the various parts of the house. There are a remarkable number of unsold seats. If this offer doesn't do the trick, then at least when I go on Saturday we'll all be able to spread out...

[ina]

Dear Intermezzo, I just wanted to thank you for this blog! I follow it regularly and really appreciate the work you do.

[abba]

As much as I like your blog, dear Intermezzo, you've got to familiarize yourself with Baroque operas a little more, even if you are not a fan. Veronique Gens is an unknown singer? Come on!

[Hugh Kerr]

its not just obscure operas the Garden is having trouble selling I was at Cosi last week and there chunks of empty seats and also for Don Pasquale maybe the cuts are beginning to bite!

[inter mezzo]

@abba Veronique Gens may be a favourite of yours in Arkansas, but I can assure you she is unknown to the vast majority of ROH-goers. Her presence failed to fill seats for the excellent La Calisto a couple of years ago - another well-cast, well-produced rarity which flopped at the box office.

Given that the aim of my post was to examine why ticket sales for Niobe have been slow, not to flaunt my limited knowledge of baroque opera, I think that's pertinent. Times are tough, and people aren't willing to shell out hundreds to see something they can't get a handle on first.

[Tristan]

So Inter Mezzo has teeth and she is not afraid to bite - it is, after all, her blog.

But of course loads and loads of people know who Veronique Gens is - whether they live in Arkansas or near Inter Mezzo's undoubtedly artistically superior neighbourhood. The comments by Abba are totally pertinent and Inter Mezzo has no right to claim otherwise on behalf of the vast mnajority of ROH-goers.

[Sarah]

@ Inter mezzo, I think you are absolutely correct in your assessment of Niobe and of Veronique Gens. Re my earlier comment: I have heard Iestyn Davies and Alastair Miles more than 20 times in total, whereas, apart from in La Calisto, the only other time I have heard Veronique Gens was singing Mozart arias at a Prom in 2006. The ROH will be hoping for rave reviews.

[inter mezzo]

@Tristan You are mistaken. Some readers of this blog assume everyone shares their level of knowledge, but that's simply not the case. Eavesdrop on an audience conversation some time and discover for yourself. There's a good reason why Covent Garden haven't promoted the production on the back of her name. Veronique Gens may be a big fish in a small pool - the tiny, self-enclosed world of baroque opera. But she doesn't even sell out Wigmore Hall, and she's simply not known to the casual and one-time operagoers who form the bulk of the ROH audience. The poor ticket sales are evidence of that.

Incidentally, the implication that anyone who hasn't heard of Veronique Gens or is unfamiliar with baroque opera must be some kind of idiot is exactly the kind of elitist nonsense that keeps people out of the opera house and prevents them discovering this music for themselves. For all their faults, it's a trap the ROH themselves haven't fallen into.

[AlisonC]

I like Veronique Gens very much, but she's obviously not famous in the sense that Anna Netrebko or someone is. I suspect you have a point in that they can sell out a famous opera with non-famous people or a non-famous opera with famous people, but not a non-famous opera with non-famous people. Unfortunately Anna Netrebko isn't likely to be adding Niobe to her repertoire any time soon so they'll have to hope for great reviews, as another poster has said.

[marcillac]

Umm...Mezzo...Gens has been a bit of a Mozart singer for over a decade, having sung the little known Da Ponte operas at such obscure places as Aix, Vienna, Munich, Dresden and Barcelona (where she ventured as far a field as the rarely heard baroque piece Meistersinger).

I was familiar with her from these activities but was nevertheless surprised to see her on a list of the Top 20 Divas (in the Times, I believe, a year and half ago or so).

It would seem then that one hardly needs to be a connoisseur of baroque opera or indeed even familiar with the genre to be familiar with Veronique Gens. I take your point about your her capacity to fill the large London venues but she is hardly the esoteric unknown some seem to imply.

[inter mezzo]

@marcillac You are committing the same fallacy as other US commentators - assuming your own familiarity with the subject is shared by thousands of London operagoers. That is simply not the case.

Of course I'm not implying the ROH employs untried, untested or inadequate singers. I acknowledge Gens is highly regarded by aficionados. But she has appeared only twice at the ROH and one of those was a tiny role years ago. Her career has been almost entirely in continental Europe. Whatever Americans may imagine, that doesn't translate to instant UK success. Believe me, people are really not lining the streets to see her. The advance ticket sales prove my point more succinctly than any argument can.

For an obscure opera to have a good shot at the box office in London, it needs names with better audience recognition - Scholl, Daniels, that sort of level. The fate of Tamerlano a few months back (a marginally better known opera and cast than Niobe) proves that. Compare with Matilde di Shabran, a doubtful work in a questionable production, which sold out the whole run in advance purely (one assumes) on Florez's name.

The purpose of my post was to highlight ticket discounts. I welcome further *relevant* comments only.

[Nikolaus Vogel]

This is a very interesting topic. I have also heard that Manon with Netrebko and Grigolo didn't sell as well as the ROH was expecting - astonishing given that Grigolo mostly got rave, A-STAR-IS-BORN reviews - and we all know how tenor-hungry the opera world is. Yet Carmen with Christine Rice and Bryan Hymel and two other names I have forgotten sold well, as did Boheme last Christmas with more virtual unknowns (Gerzmava, Illincai etc now available to compete with Freni/Pavarotti, Scotto/Pavarotti, Stratas/Carreras, Costrubas/Aragall on DVD!) It seems that the audience is retrenching - it's hard to imagine serious and knowledgeable opera-goers wasting their money on an umpteenth unstarrily cast Carmen or Boheme when they have recently seen Garanca/Alagna or Antonacci/Kaufmann or Gheorghiu in Boheme while the casual public will go to Boheme or Carmen whoever is in it - but the hard core is evidently not big enough to fill seven pfs of Manon, even with stars, let alone Niobe with less well-known names. The root of this is that opera tickets in London are now ludicrously overpriced - the core, long-standing audience is thinking twice about shelling out 70 quid in the amphi, let alone 200 in the stalls, for bog-standard revivals of operas like Cosi with no really big names in the cast, Most of this audience will have seen Tom Allen and Rebecca Evans already and the other singers, like Gens, are hardly household names in London. Meanwhile, it seems the casual audience won't go to even Manon with big names. I wonder when the RO are going to come clean about Villazon and Werther. My guess is they will wait until booking has opened and they've sold as many tickets as they can, and then tell us what the rest of the world already knows, that Rolando won't be up to Werther. It's not even on his list of engagements on his website - so go figure. You mention that Tamerlano didn't sell, but my understanding was that the announced Domingo performances were sold out. Did they take tickets back or refund when he didn't show?

[Manou]

Nikolaus Vogel - yes they did refund tickets when Domingo cancelled.

This is indeed an interesting topic (I am the owner of a non-discounted ticket for Niobe on Monday...but only one as my husband refused to accompany me). You probably have better information that I do, but as someone who has been to Manon twice (plus the rehearsal), I can only say that the house seemed full and enthusiastic both times.

Don Pasquale (September 14 performance) was quite obviously poorly attended. For the first time in a long time, there were many empty seats in evidence. I only hope that those standing in the Gods were able to occupy them after the interval. I saw Cosi in the cinema, so have no first hand evidence to offer.

I am sure the pricing is a deterrent - but even the humongous discounts have not encouraged mass booking for Niobe, so there must be more to it than just cost.

[Jon]

I hope it is OK to go off topic slightly.

There is a very interesting and rather disturbing article on the Arts Desk site about the Opera House's new tactic of demanding that creative artists give up all of their intellectual property rights:

http://www.theartsdesk.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=2239:rights-grab-at-the-royal-opera-house&Itemid=29

The article also mentions the Opera House's recent dealings with Inter Mezzo and it seems that the semi-literate Mr Avory is also behind Covent Garden's attempt to drive a coach and horses through the normally accepted relationship between an opera house and the artists contributing to its success.

[Nik]

Manou - they didn't exactly refund the Tamerlano tickets. They offered a 20% refund to ticket holders in the form of a ROH voucher, which I believe was equivalent to the original "Domingo premium" compared to the Streit performances.

[inter mezzo]

@Nikolaus Vogel I’m actually surprised Manon sold as well as it did, given that it’s not a well-known opera and Netrebko was the only big name. Grigolo’s popera past put off more knowledgeable buyers (including some commenters here), at least until he opened his mouth and proved he wasn’t the Italian Russell Watson. But like Manou, I only saw full houses. Reviews may have helped - the advance sales, as you say, weren’t spectacular.

It does seem only superstars or warhorses are guaranteed to fill the house right now. That I think says a lot about the typical operagoer these days, and suggests that a significant proportion are tourists and birthday-treaters, rather than a knowledgeable, consistent audience base. Let’s face it, if you don’t manage to grab cheap seats on the first day of booking, it’s simply not affordable enough for the majority of people to gain a regular acquaintance.

[inter mezzo]

It's also worth pointing out that although the LSO can fill the Barbican for two nights of Verdi's Otello or similar, the venue doesn't always sell out its baroque operas. Admittedly these are mostly concert versions, but the performers are generally high quality and the ticket prices reasonable. That suggests to me that the hard core, non-casual, audience for this sort of thing is not large.

[Manou]

Nik - you are of course entirely correct. I should have said a partial refund as you describe. But I do know for a fact that some people managed to get a full refund. And some just did not turn up. When I was there, every interval offered an opportunity for many many people to escape and never return. I had to practically sit on my husband to convince him to stay until the end.

[KM]

I would also mention that there must be fewer people on corporate tickets, as businesses (particularly banks) have cut their entertainment budgets during the recession. That'll impact the "posh" seats rather than the Amphi.

[Manou]

I used to live in Paris before I was married, and there any new theatrical or operatic premiere is generally announced on the evening news and part of the collective consciousness. Here, opera performances get no PR of any kind, are definitely not news fodder, and are marginalised and only known to the few who make an effort to find out about them.

The Sun had those two special performances at the ROH - not sure how this went, but it is not enough, really.

This all goes back to my favourite subject - more music in schools, please. And clone Gareth Malone (not only because it rhymes).

[Ruth]

Manou - in fact, Nik isn't entirely correct. Tamerlano was priced equally for Domingo and Streit originally - there was no premium. The discount that was later offered on what should have been Domingo performances was not available on Streit's scheduled performances, so ultimately, everybody ended up hearing Streit but those who had originally intended to do so ended up doing so at a premium!

[simon]

Spare a thought for us dumb enought to be friends of ROH. I tried to upgrade my ticket bought months ago at the full price to a better seat which even with this discount was more expensive. I was told I would have to upgrade to the new ticket at full price or return my original ticket in the hope that they could sell it (fat chance) and buy a new one at the discounted price. So much for loyalty! P.S. ENO charge a reasonable £2.00 admin fee to do allow exactly this.

[Vecchio John]

It will be interesting to see when public booking opens how well Adrianna and Tannhäuser have sold. If they do not sell out then the ROH does have a problem in shifting seats.

Does anyone know when booking opens for the ENO Spring Season with Parsifal? It is impossible to find out from their website ( no I do not want to listen to the Soldiers' Chorus at full blast when I'm looking). Wagner is one thing that really does sell out at the Coli.

[Gareth James]

This offer's no longer there

[Ruth]

Vecchio John - public booking opens on 1st November for ENO 2011. It's on the back cover of the printed brochure for the autumn season.