parterre box

11 comments

• Edward George says:

  I sent Danny’s website to a friend as a puzzle to see if she could understand what it was all about. After two days she gave up.

  Also check out “Danny Knows Best” on Facebook to see this viral marketing in action and for additional clues:

  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Danny-Knows-Best/146819245348109

  on November 17, 2010 at 11:19 AM
  • dcrazmo says:

    And what is it all about, Alfie?

    on November 17, 2010 at 5:21 PM
    • Edward George says:

      It is the Royal Opera House’s latest attempt to promote itself to new audiences and sell tickets which are struggling at the box office.

      The trailer and videos for “Danny Knows Best” have been posted on Facebook to walls of reality TV shows, in the hope that fans of such shows will watch the trailer or 9-minute video, wish to join the audience, click on the appropriate button, realise that they have just watched the plot of “Rigoletto”, think that the video was fun/cool/made opera accessible and not patronising etc and then pay £55 for a seat in the stalls.

      More regular visitors to the ROH see this as an opportunity to snap a bargain and pay £55 for a seat that would normally be £150+ with a glass of champagne thrown in.

      on November 17, 2010 at 6:15 PM
      • dcrazmo says:

        Figured it was something like that (give the word “hunch,” although I must have missed the part in Rigoletto when someone puts out cigarettes on Gilda’s hands.

        But my guess is that the number of people this attracts into the opera house will be zilch.

        on November 18, 2010 at 7:53 AM
      • dcrazmo says:

        Does the ROH do HD transmissions? If not, that would seem to be a better use of marketing funds.

        on November 18, 2010 at 8:02 AM
        • manou says:

          Yes they do – not on the same scale as the Met, and often not live.

          Most European opera houses seem to have followed suit – I am going to the La Scala opening HD transmission here in London.

          http://www.teatroallascala.org/it/stagioni/2010_2011/opera-e-balletto/die_walkuere.html

          Vitalij Kowaljow has taken over from Pape.

          on November 18, 2010 at 8:24 AM
• tannengrin says:

  this is clearly a regie production of (a) Cenerentola or (b) Magic Flute, with the 3 ladies standing in for the ominously absent Queen of the Night.

  on November 17, 2010 at 12:35 PM
• Quanto Painy Fakor says:

  more to the point:
  “Bruce Sledge will sing the role of Ferrando in this evening’s performance of Così fan tutte, replacing Pavol Breslik, who is ill.”
  Get well soon Pavol

  on November 17, 2010 at 5:22 PM
  • Regina delle fate says:

    Pavol cancelled most of his Covent Garden Cosis recently

    on November 18, 2010 at 6:46 AM
    • manou says:

      If only he had cancelled the performance I saw….

      on November 18, 2010 at 6:51 AM
• Nerva Nelli says:

  Sledge’s tone is a bit adenoidal at full tilt, but he had the goods technically and to hold your own in those ensembles as a sub is really something. In some ways he was the most interestting of the six, though what Persson can do ( and it isn’t eveything) she does well. Dancing Danielle I though a disaster- the role is too low for her and the cooing and pulling around of the tone for supposed comic effect was just dreadful.

  Ms. Leonard as Dorabella is fine but unmemorable- for the TIMES tio devite column space to her post-birth slimming really shows that they have no depths to which they won’t sink to try and sell Met tickets, the PRIME DIRECTIVE,

  on November 18, 2010 at 11:05 AM