A colleague reports:
My unofficial understanding of the 1st Ring Cycle “Rheingold” is that 1100 of the
MET’s @ 3625 seats were papered, ie: given away, or sold at significantly
reduced prices. My further unofficial understanding is that only 55% of the
seats were sold via subscription for the entire Ring Cycle, the lowest
subscription sales for a Ring Cycle in MET history.
I guess you won’t be reading this in the Gelb-friendly New York Times.
You won’t read that the new Faust, depite an opening night cast that featured Jonas Kaufmann and Rene Pape, with later casts including Roberto Alagna, Joseph Calleja and Ferrucio Furlanetto, took in less than 60% of the potential box office for it’s run.
Faust is among my favorite operas and I would’ve most definitely had bought a ticket were it not for the Eurotrash production. I wonder how many people like me…
Having bought a subscription Ring Cycle, my husband and I were particularly offended that our tickets were not exchangeable, a privilege afforded every other type of subscriber at any level, including levels way below the amount we were forced to pay in contributions and raised ticket prices. This is reverse logic! We will not subscribe again to any Ring Cycle at the MET.
I would simply point out that recent comments here from a “colleague at the Met” suggested things that were clearly mistaken – such as that single tickets had never been sold before for the Ring Cycle. I’m not entirely sure I would trust said colleague about ticket sales, Norman.
From the NY Post:
Remaining tickets to this year’s “Ring” are scarce, even at $2,600 for the entire cycle. If you’re not ready to take so pricey a plunge, you’re in luck: The Met has filmed “The Ring” operas in HD, bringing all four installments to metropolitan-area movie theaters, including the AMC Empire 25 on 42nd Street.
(The Post is not exactly a Lepage Ring apologist.)
http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/music/met_polished_new_ring_CcPNcAuZtjcVELptLBga3K#ixzz1t8UTT5y0
Looked sold out tonight (Siegfried). No seats in the orchestra when I saw Valkeries. I was lucky for Gotterdammerung in that the seat on my left was open but there weren’t many open seats (orchestra). Das Rheingold was pretty packed too.
I’m not an apologist. In fact, I’ve never heard of Gelb until very recently when I first started attending opera.
I liked the first two parts best. I liked Siegfried the least. Boring. And The Machine doesn’t do much during that one except for endless projections of fire.
I don’t know much about opera but I think I could edit the entire cycle down to about 3 hours, tops.
Friends say 3rd Ring Cycle standing room tickets may be up to $50. Couldn’t get a straight answer from the box office, but said final price hasn’t been set. Huh???
Friends say they will line up by 8 AM to try to get tickets. Performances, like the 2nd cycle, are sold out. 2nd cycle standing room was sold for $30, with all places filled. Normal standing from tickets are $21 max.
The critics may hate it, but this Ring is a hit with audiences.