Public booking for the Royal Opera House's winter season opened today at 10am. In theory. In practice, I couldn't get into the website at all until about 10.30. Then the message above cleared and I found myself at number 1900-and-something in the queue. An hour and a half later the virtual portal finally creaked open - to reveal a surprising number of tickets still available. Even for Adriana Lecouvreur and Tannhäuser, supposedly the most popular productions of the season.
So why the long wait?
I did notice that a disturbing amount of tickets had sold for Anna Nicole: The Opera. (Ahem).
But the problem was their releasing the ballet AND opera schedules simultaneously - and by not letting people browse the schedules while waiting, it meant some people probably checked what was on offer and decided against buying anything - which delayed everyone else further.
I couldn't get into the site till lunchtime, then the site failed whenever I tried to log in or purchase tickets. I queued three or four times in the end, no luck.
It's a shame that this keeps happening with the ROH website - surely it would be better for them to stagger ticket releases?!
Posted by: Chantal | 05 October 2010 at 05:23 PM
Band width problems?
Posted by: Linda Ginsburg | 05 October 2010 at 05:28 PM
I found the wait no longer than usual for the first day of public booking and at least on this occasion it didn't crash during the purchase process. One has to do ones homework beforehand. I managed to buy 12 good cheap tickets for various operas including those mentioned by intermezzo. For once I have no complaints.
Posted by: Paul King | 05 October 2010 at 07:09 PM
Lucky you-- my queue place kept refreshing each time I clicked on a production-- couldn't book tickets until 4:59 pm after waiting all day!
Posted by: Kate | 05 October 2010 at 08:06 PM
Queued from 9:15, got to buy tickets at 10:15. Plenty of tickets available for la prima of AL.
Posted by: Flaviu | 05 October 2010 at 08:32 PM
I happened to check the site at 9.15am, and found myself at 1300 in the queue - although judging by the way the queue went down, tickets didn't actually become available til 10. It did clear fairly quickly though, & once at the front there were still plenty of seats for Magic Flute.
Credit where it's due though - stupid internet security settings at work meant that I couldn't check out my tickets: cue much panic at the thought of missing out. But a quick email to the box office, and they reserved the tickets I was after, for me to pay later in the week once the phones are quieter.
Posted by: Richard | 05 October 2010 at 08:58 PM
Pretty much the same experience for me as well. Nothing between 10 am and 10.30, then put into the queue until about 12 am when I was finally able to get some tickets (fortunately, pretty much got what I wanted)...
Posted by: Cmeerw | 05 October 2010 at 09:18 PM
what you are not a friend Intermezzo? let me know what you want and I will book for you of course you will have to sit next tonme in the upper slips and I expect entertaining critiques at the interval!
Posted by: Hugh Kerr | 05 October 2010 at 10:36 PM
@Hugh I am indeed a Friend, but when it comes to Tannhäuser I want more than friendship alone can buy ;)
Posted by: inter mezzo | 05 October 2010 at 11:10 PM
Bandwidth problem; failure to increase server capacity for times of increased web site use. Too bad, because these times are entirely predictable.
Posted by: Lisa Hirsch | 06 October 2010 at 12:09 AM
@Chantal - "I did notice that a disturbing amount of tickets had sold for Anna Nicole: The Opera. (Ahem)." Great opera composer, great direcor and Pappano at the helm with EMW in the title role - and prices at 75 quid tops - the fact that it has sold so well is fan'fucking´tastic news. Are you implying that people should give contemporary opera a miss? Or is it the fucking potty-mouthed libretto that offends? Surely not..!
Posted by: Keithyboy | 06 October 2010 at 09:21 AM
Ahem, this is an area I'm supposed to know something about professionally, so I will make a few comments.
The ROH website is indeed appalling in many ways, not least that it is incredibly difficult to find out the basic information expected by an operagoer: what's on tonight, next week, next month, what are the expected running times, are there any last minute cast changes and so on? How the present system got through any form of usability testing, I have no idea!
But I suspect that the reason for the "queueing system" is not bandwidth or basic web traffic, but firstly the processing of credit card transactions and perhaps secondly the recording of the booking itself in a database. These are normally the two parts of the system most difficult to "scale" to handle a very large number of transactions in a short period of time, for example immediately after booking opens.
Unfortunately, the design of the ROH web site means visitors get forced into queueing even if they just want to receive basic information on productions/dates and have no intention of completing a transaction. This has caught me out (and irritated me immensely!) on several occasions.
My solution to the ticket purchase problem was to upgrade to a more "friendly" level of the friends organisation, which although very expensive, does at least give you earlier access and smaller queues!
But really, the present system of creating a mad rush/scrum for tickets at set times discriminates in favour of those with good Internet access and plenty of time on their hands at 10:00am (or alternatively the patience of Job trying to get through on the telephone - before Internet booking, we used to jam the whole of the covent garden telephone exchange at booking opening times!).
There are pros and cons to all approaches to handling booking, but personally, I'd prefer to be able to register my requests online in advance (at leisure) and have the computer allocate the tickets in a ballot when booking closes. A sort of automated version of the old postal booking system, if you will. Of course you wouldn't get confirmation of the actual seat assigned for several weeks perhaps, but the system would be much fairer. More finely designated seating areas/preferences would also help. The computer could even remember disappointed purchasers who didn't get the exact tickets they wanted and give them higher priority in the ballot next time (I believe Bayreuth does something like this - but probably on paper!).
Posted by: MikeG | 06 October 2010 at 09:30 AM
C'mon IM - Tannhäuser , Schmannhäuser , we all know its Jonas you'll be eyeing up every night of the run ....
By the way, still a 400+ waiting room this morning.
Posted by: Kit Gill | 06 October 2010 at 09:34 AM
Just to balance this discussion, as a Friend, I am perfectly happy with the current online booking system. This is not because I am able to always go online at 8am to book the tickets on the day they go on sale, but because for me it is the best working option at the moment. No system is perfect and there are always going to be winners and losers. The problem here, it seems to me, is that demand outstrips supply for new productions, popular operas and good casting, oh and Wagner! No ticketing system, however sophisticated, is going to deal with that. So leave it as it is, or find some way of having more performances.
Posted by: Itsnotbroke | 06 October 2010 at 11:54 AM
I posted it on the wrong thread so most people will have missed it, but I did want to record how helpful the box office staff member - Maria Perez - was when I lost all my tickets in an IT nightmare yesterday. I emailed to say what had happened and she re-reserved them straight away. Amazing.
Posted by: Giuseppe W | 06 October 2010 at 01:02 PM
@ Kit Gill
Jonas isn't in Tannhäuser - it's Johan Botha and I v much doubt IM will be eyeing him up throughout the run, unless she watches through the wrong end of her opera glasses. :)
Posted by: Nikolaus Vogel | 06 October 2010 at 01:09 PM
The rest of the ENO season has now appeared on their site (still with the The Soldier's Chorus blasting out)and general booking opens on the 1st November. Worth booking well ahead for the fabulously cast Parsifal, as someone says above Wagner is generally a sell out.
Strangely no lead tenor for The Damnation of Faust or Amelia in Boccanegra are announced.
Posted by: Vecchio John | 06 October 2010 at 01:19 PM
I'm as much of a fan of the ROHs labarynthine website as the rest of ye (i.e. NOT a fan) but with all respect just to point out that I had THREE postings on facebook from the ROH apologising for the booking malfunctions yesterday...
Posted by: Deb | 06 October 2010 at 01:58 PM
My friend and I managed to get two tix for AL. My home house is the Met. I am SHOCKED at the ticket price for ROH, but still, am excited to see my first opera there.
Posted by: SarahB | 06 October 2010 at 04:46 PM
@ Nikolaus Vogel: Whoever suggested Jonas was in Tannhäuser? The translation of my yiddish would be "To hell with Tannhäuser" - IM was obviously logging on to book out the entire run of AL - she has an Interpol file open on her for Jonas-stalking. I'm going twice - out with it IM - how many nights have you booked for?
Posted by: Kit Gill | 07 October 2010 at 12:27 PM
1) My computer (maybe firewall settings)has never managed to buy anything online from ROH (while I have no problem with Southbank, Barbican, Sadler's Well, etc...) 2) The phone was busy (not even getting the music and asking you to wait... outright not connecting) until the following day at midday
3) It is absurd that i had to wait in the cue just to check online the information on what i wanted to buy on the phone
Posted by: Jaime | 07 October 2010 at 01:10 PM