Cheap Tickets to a Show at Teatro Colon?

[jimdepalermo]

To Chris and JoeGillis, let me say that I did not mean to imply any negative about the Met orchestra. It is indeed one of the very, very finest ensembles in the world today, in symphonic repertory as well as opera.

The point I was trying to make is that in classical music, it's all about budgets. And since ticket prices cover only a small fraction of the cost of performance, the remaining financing must come from public sources, donations, or earnings from endowments.

I think it's more reasonable to compare the work of companies with similar budgets. The Met operates with a budget a few times the size of the Colón's. Last year the Met recorded $182 million in contributions by wealthy donors - more than the Colón's entire budget, and even with that, they ran a deficit.

You also have to consider that the Colón's much smaller budget covers ballet performances, a separate symphonic orchestra, a guest-recital season, and a training conservatory, all of which are outside the scope of the Met's operations. (OK - the Met does 3 or 4 orchestral concerts a year, and yes - they're often astonishing.) Plus the Colón is hamstrung by Argentine labor rules and union practices, and, this being Argentina, we assume a degree of graft as well.

I was basically suggesting, indirectly, that we cut the Colón some slack. Given the size of their budget, they're not doing a bad job. And given the level of public funding available currently in cash-strapped Argentina, the only way to maintain even that standard of quality is with the higher ticket prices. Trust me - I don't like them any more than you do.

I'm just glad we have the opportunity to hear music performed at least competently in that splendid space! I'll be interested to see if this year's attendance is as high as last year's, given the steep price increases in the lower tiers of the house.

And to Chris, the level of playing by the BA Phil has indeed been improving in the last couple years - try to catch a concert with Diemecke playing Bruckner or Mahler in that incredible acoustic! I also agree with your comparison between Colón opera and New York City Opera. Unfortunately, New York City Opera realized that actually performing is more expensive than not performing, so they barely exist as a performing entity at this point. Let's hope the Colón doesn't try to learn the same lesson.

 

[chris]

The dress code broke down during the economic crisis. The Grand abonos of the Opera used to Black tie obligatory in platea and palcos. When the crisis came management decided to drop it. Now some people come dressed as though they are going to the beach.

The HD broadcasts have done a lot to enhance the image of the US by calling attention to the extremely high quality of Metropolitan Opera performances. It's harder to ridicule the US as a country without culture when you see and hear what the Met produces on an almost nightly basis.

 

[chris]

To Chris and JoeGillis, let me say that I did not mean to imply any negative about the Met orchestra. It is indeed one of the very, very finest ensembles in the world today, in symphonic repertory as well as opera.

The point I was trying to make is that in classical music, it's all about budgets. And since ticket prices cover only a small fraction of the cost of performance, the remaining financing must come from public sources, donations, or earnings from endowments.

I think it's more reasonable to compare the work of companies with similar budgets. The Met operates with a budget a few times the size of the Colón's. Last year the Met recorded $182 million in contributions by wealthy donors - more than the Colón's entire budget, and even with that, they ran a deficit.

You also have to consider that the Colón's much smaller budget covers ballet performances, a separate symphonic orchestra, a guest-recital season, and a training conservatory, all of which are outside the scope of the Met's operations. (OK - the Met does 3 or 4 orchestral concerts a year, and yes - they're often astonishing.) Plus the Colón is hamstrung by Argentine labor rules and union practices, and, this being Argentina, we assume a degree of graft as well.

I was basically suggesting, indirectly, that we cut the Colón some slack. Given the size of their budget, they're not doing a bad job. And given the level of public funding available currently in cash-strapped Argentina, the only way to maintain even that standard of quality is with the higher ticket prices. Trust me - I don't like them any more than you do.

I'm just glad we have the opportunity to hear music performed at least competently in that splendid space! I'll be interested to see if this year's attendance is as high as last year's, given the steep price increases in the lower tiers of the house.

And to Chris, the level of playing by the BA Phil has indeed been improving in the last couple years - try to catch a concert with Diemecke playing Bruckner or Mahler in that incredible acoustic! I also agree with your comparison between Colón opera and New York City Opera. Unfortunately, New York City Opera realized that actually performing is more expensive than not performing, so they barely exist as a performing entity at this point. Let's hope the Colón doesn't try to learn the same lesson.

I have known a number of people at the Colon over the past twenty years. One was forced out when there was a change of municipal government. The theatre is a political mess. Lots of corruption and incompetence. There are stories that I can not print here. How many operas does the Colon produce a year? Ten? In recent years I believe fewer. How many ballets? Around four? Only the Philharmonic has a fairly long season. Given the low number of performances presented by the Colon (I am excluding private groups that rent the hall), costs seem very high to me. As I said before, the current prices are something new. They were never so high before -- even when the big stars came. When I first came to Argentina (Menem years) many of the leading international stars sang at the Colon and tickets were cheaper! Given the hostility of the Kirchner and Macri administrations to anything but popular culture, however, we should be happy that the Colon still exists to present the classics.

 

[JoeGillis]

Jimdepalermo, no, please, I understand and appreciate what you are saying with regard to the Colon, and my remarks were not meant to ridicule the company. However, as Chris has pointed out, the Colon's pricing, particularly for opera, is way too high for the overall quality of performances. Even Argentine friends of mine, regular subscribers for many years, are furious at the now very high prices they are havng to pay. Like Chris said, lots and lots of politics at play here, both in and out of the Colon.

 

[chris]

I went to the Colon's website and randomly chose a performance date that I thought would correspond to one at the Metropolitan Opera. I selected Tuesday, April 24. I then chose a seat in Platea at the Colon that is equivalent in location to one at the Met. The Met is performing a Wagner opera that runs nearly six hours and will surely cost a lot more than the Verdi opera being presented by the Colon. I only mention this because the Colon is charging special, super high prices for Wagner this season: $3,000 pesos in Platea for the RING) Here are my findings.

Teatro Colon
La Forza del Destino, April 24
Platea Row 7, seat 209
$1,515 pesos (USD $346)

Metropolitan Opera Company
Die Gotterdammerung, April 24
Row H, seat 32 Orchestra USD $180
This is the 8th row so similar to the Met seat I chose.

 

[jimdepalermo]

OK, guys, you've convinced me. The Colón's prices are way too high.

Regarding the "Ring" as the Colon calls it, if you look at what they're doing, it's a snippets version put together by a great-grandaughter of Wagner who's most famous for her 60-minute version of Der Fliegende Holländer for children. It is not Wagner's Ring cycle that is being performed. (But if it were, there would be 4 tickets to buy, which would be even more expensive than what the Colón is charging for their single-day bastardized version jaja). To see a Ring cycle, you have to wait until next year and go to La Plata.

I am adding to your comparison of prices at major international companies, my data in italics:

Teatro Colon
La Forza del Destino, April 24
Platea Row 7, seat 209
$1,515 pesos (USD $346)
OR Rear Platea, which I actually prefer, Row 15, Seat 441
merely! $1350 (USD $308)

Metropolitan Opera Company
Die Gotterdammerung, April 24
Row H, seat 32 Orchestra USD $180
This is the 8th row so similar to the Met seat I chose.

Covent Garden
April 25
La Fille De Regiment with a fairly ratty cast, comparable to Colon casting
Stalls M20 - 179 GBP = U$ 286

Opera de Paris
April 26
Cav/Pag with a "Met" cast (Urmana, Giordani, Galouzine, etc.- not necessarily very good, but loud and expensive casting)
Comparable parterre seat 140EU = U$ 186

Wienerstaatsoper
April 24
Don Carlos with a cast also worthy of the Colón
Parkett Row 11 center 157EU = U$ 209

===================
OR, looking at companies whose work is more comparable to that of the Colón these days, with more comparable budgets, I chose Dusseldorf's Deutsche Oper am Rhein:

April 24
Dialogues des Carmélites
Top orchestra seat - 75,10EU = U$ 100

a quick check of a couple other good national companies in Europe shows similar pricing

 

[chris]

Yes, the "RING" is a mini version. I was aware of that. The $3,000 peso price is for a SINGLE ticket. The MET can not outdo that amazing pricing! You have to give the Colon credit for chutzpah!

Let me add one more performance on a date close to the one I selected. April 25, the day after FORZA. The Opera Company of Philadelphia is presenting MANON LESCAUT. I'd say that their quality is on a par with the Colon's. Philadelphia is the second largest city on the East Coast of the US and a major performing arts center. The Academy of Music where the Opera Company performs is a magnificent fully restored, circa 1845 Baroque opera house (it's the opera house in Scorsese's The Age of Innocence). The most expensive seats in Parquet, the Academy's term for Orchestra, are $130 USD.

 

[jimdepalermo]

Actually, Chris, orchestra seats to the Met ring cycles this season range from U$1100 to U$ 2600, with parterre box seats at U$ 3000-3500. This for all 4 evenings, or course.

That's actually a little steeper even than Bayreuth prices.

 

[chris]

If they are $1,100, they are $275 each which is a lot less than $3,000 pesos for one single Colon performance of the Mini Ring. 3,000.00 Argentine Pesos = 685.71 U.S. Dollars. More than Bayreuth?

 

[JoeGillis]

The "Colon Ring", as it has been dubbed, will be a 7 hour presentation, which includes 3 intermissions. What makes this travesty even worse than just being an abridgement, it'll be staged out of opera sequence! Holy Bayreuth! Wagner implicitly stated that the RING should never be performed piecemeal, so imagine how he'd react to the cockamamie idea of a sequence change!