<p>The Cleveland Orchestra has dramatically increased attendance with it’s Student and Young Professionals programs and are rapidly building a new and much younger audience base. My D pays $20 for a student ticket to the Chicago Lyric Opera, sitting in a $200 seat- she has seen every production this season, some more than once- as well as special event recitals and Chicago Symphony concerts. The institutions make an active commitment to attract students- they can buy their tickets on line and go right into the facility without the hassle of lotteries or lines. So change has come to some cities and worked really well.</p>
<p>@bookmama22- Yes, there are some shows at the Met which do fill the house, or pretty near it but under Peter Gelbs’s management there have been far too many productions for which even papering the house doesn’t even come close to putting bodies in 3800 seats (Saturday matinees excepted). Only 50 of the up to 200 rush tickets are set aside for seniors- I wish they’d increase that number though, and while some students do take advantage of the rush program, I know far more who sit in the far regions of the Family Circle. It’s flat out too expensive for the average person and for those planning a trip to NYC for the purpose of the opera, it’s either shell out for very costly seats,queue for the weekday rush seats or enter the iffy lottery for the weekend tickets. HD tickets have gone up in price and the cost for the encore broadcast is now the same, whereas it used to be a few dollars less.
The increase isn’t coming from money paid to singers and musicians but something had to fund those new and very costly productions- ticket prices aren’t covering the nut for those and the administrative salaries so endowments are being tapped and prices keep going up.
As musica pointed out, government funding keeps European houses afloat and that also allows them to scrap a bad production and not have to keep the turkey in rotation for years. Despite our hopes, I doubt that will ever be the case in the US.</p>
<p>@saintfan, where are you located? Let’s go to the opera!</p>