Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Met Opera Tickets Selling Like Hot Cakes!

Where are all the naysayers now? You know who I am talking about. Those folks who said that Peter Gelb was crazy for simulcasting operas from the Met to movie theaters around the world. Wouldn't it hurt ticket sales? Wouldn't people rather pay a cheaper price and see a Met opera in the movie theater? Apparently not.

Give credit where credit is due. Ticket sales at the Metropolitan Opera, which has been striving for a broader audience under new General Manager Peter Gelb, rose 7.1 percent in the 2006-07 season. It was the opera house's first ticket-sale increase by season in six years! Check out this article: Metropolitan Opera Ticket Sales Rise for First Time in 6 Years.

Congratulations Mr. Gelb. Excellent work.

P.S. Hear about it all straight from the horse's mouth. Elena Park, the Metropolitan Opera's Assistant Manager in charge of creative content, is a plenary speaker at the 2007 National Arts Marketing Project Conference in Miami, November 2-5.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It is wonderful to see that the MET had a great year. Having been in the performing arts for over 9 years, I know that the market is quite sizable and quite honestly people are hungry for great performance art.
In my experience, when an institution is not gaining the ticket sales or subscriber base it aims for it is usually not their season line up or lack of great performers but the way the institution is marketed and sold to the public. Of course sales departments are often overlooked and even frowned upon from the customers and within the organizations themselves.