A minute and a huff
La Cieca presents an open letter from a parterre box reader.
Dear Metropolitan Opera:
I have been a loyal subscriber to the Met since I moved to the New York area, but I am sad to announce that I will not be buying a subscription to next year’s season.
Looking back at my season this year, I have found that most of the performances for which I’ve bought tickets a year early have had major cancellations, either weeks before or the day of. Here’s what has happened to me this year in my subscription follies:
- Aida on October 21st: Dolora Zajick canceled
- Turandot on October 28th: Maria Guleghina canceled
- Hoffmann on December 23rd: Rolando Villazon, Rene Pape and Kathleen Kim canceled
- Hamlet on March 24th: Natalie Dessay canceled
- Traviata on April 7th: Leonard Slatkin canceled
- Tosca on April 14th: James Levine and Karita Mattila canceled
- Lulu on May 12th: Levine canceled
Now for many of these nights there were great performers in their place. Olga Borodina‘s Amneris was wonderful, Lise Lindstrom was a powerful Turandot, Rachelle Gilmore was a fantastic Olympia. Leonard Slatkin didn’t know the score so anyone will be better than him, and I am a huge fan of Fabio Luisi and trust in his ability to create a wonderful Tosca and Lulu.
I am also aware that these cancellations are not directly the fault of the house, and only rarely the fault of the performer (except in the case of Slatkin), but still the questions remain:
Why should I purchase my tickets a year in advance with this frequency of cancellations? What is the advantage for a young, busy, cash-strapped opera lover?
There must be some incentive to purchasing tickets in advance for it to be viable in the eyes of the opera world as it stands today, but as it is the risk is too great to gamble what spare money I do have on the potential of seeing a poor replacement for a star who I was scheduled to see.
Since I can no longer expect that the announced cast will show up, I will continue to go to the Met, but only purchasing tickets the day of the performance, standing room if need be.
The Met has said over and over again that they are trying to attract the next generation of opera enthusiasts. I am that audience: a 25 year old professional with the passion to attend the opera. Unfortunately, I’m getting tired of the inconsistency and price. As I consider how I’ll buy tickets next year, it seems more likely that I will be calling for standing room tickets at noon each day I intend to go.
Rush tickets are not a possibility for me, as I work all day and cannot sit in line. We might as well face the reality that your rush ticket program is not reaching the audience you targeted. Stroll by the rush ticket line any day and you’ll find the same retirees who would have bought family circle had the rush program not been available.
The money currently put forward for the rush ticket program would be far better spent on a “Young Met” program, allowing people such as myself a way to go to the Met regularly.
The draw for the next generation of opera fans is waning fast, and you must do something to address this situation. Realize that the people you want aren’t buying subscriptions anymore, partly because they don’t have several hundred dollars (at least) burning a hole in their pocket, and partly because they never know what they’re going to get.
You were recently given the largest gift in Met history. I hope to see some progress in coming seasons regarding these issues, and I am looking forward to another year of operatic enjoyment in your storied house, albeit on a day-by-day basis.
I welcome any response and would love to share my personal experience and thoughts with anyone willing to listen, my personal email is devon.c.estes@gmail.com.
With love and hope,
Devon C. Estes
CK, I think you’re being very unfair. Those TV shows Villazon is on are squarely MIDDLE-brow!
You guys and gals are ALL WRONG! As fully demonstrated by LC a couple of days ago, Villazon is FULL BROW.
I stand with Miles (#68) in support of the make-your-own subscription. NYCO has operated this way for decades. It was incredibly consumer-friendly and did away with the cumbersome exchange business which has led to some serious mistakes on the MET’s part that have had to be rectified with further expense to me. (I will say here, however, that the Ticket Service has always been very good to work with).
Then for maybe two years, the MET offered instant exchange when you ordered by phone. You were requested to pick a subscription that had two or three operas you wanted and then could immediately change out the ones you didn’t want for others you did, and this was for any days you wanted, not just the day of the subscription.
Every year when I call I put in a request that make-your-own or instant exchange be reinstated, and ask that it be sent to Ticket Service management. And maybe some day they will. The hefty exchange charges could still be imposed to bring in more cash and the time all this takes would be significantly reduced. Of course, now there’s the barrage of performances that you’re not allowed to exchange INTO — just to make it all that much more frustrating.
Calaf,
You can include Barcelona and Salzburg in addition to Vienna. The Muskaverin in Vienna has similar policy to checking your outerwear.
Villazon is MONO-brow.
The coat-check queues (if you can call them that) at Covent Garden are murderous. The provide an object lesson in modern British manners (or lack thereof). I nearly came blows once with some assholes who were blocking everybody’s route after the show on a cold February evening. They seemed to be having a little cocktail party among the coatless throngs.
#78 Don’t forget Frank Guarrera.
I cancelled my subscription when the Met sold it twice. The same thing happened at every performance: I would go to my seat. An innocent stranger was sitting there. I would go down to the house manager (bearded guy standing on the stairs in the main lobby). He would send me back upstairs with an usher to see if I were telling the truth. We would come back down, and the house manager would grudgingly offer me another seat. His main concern was that I must not get a better seat than the one I had bought, so he would offer me partial view seats or seats much further back. We would argue. He would give me with the greatest reluctance a reasonably decent seat. Two weeks later we would repeat. He never remembered me from one incident to the next.
I’m a really old broad, as I’ve mentioned here before numerous times, and come to Manhattan twice a year, for the Encore Society weekend (those of us who are more valuable to the Met dead), and for the National Patron Weekend. Among the operas on offer this March for the Encore Society was La Boheme, for which I bought the ticket, thinking perhaps it was the last “opportunity” I’d have to see the Zeff production.
I’ve just received the postcard for National Patron weekend, and among the operas for those dates, December 2-4, are La Boheme and Carmen…ARE THEY KIDDING???!? As hidebound as we perhaps are, even we old coots are getting tired of ONE MORE BLASTED La Boheme…and I’ll probably buy the ticket, anyway…so I guess the Met knows its audience, ater all…
So stop complaining and don’t buy. I wouldn’t. I love La Boheme greatly. Carmen not so much. However I have seen La Boheme enough that it wouldn’t appeal to me currently, and Carmen cannot really get my attention, no matter who’s in it. Take that money and buy a single ticket to something you really want to hear and (possibly) see (depending on the production).