Scott Morrison <[log in to unmask]> kindly forwards a piece from the
KC Star that doesn't get around to answering its leading question:

>A good seat at the Metropolitan Opera can set you back $180 -- or roughly
>the cost of a whole season at Kansas City's Lyric Opera.  Is a Kansas
>Citian well advised to travel to classical music's capital city to hear
>opera?

This kind of problem is not confined to Gotham City.  Take the case of
Munich.  The opera's fine here --with Zubin Mehta in charge, it ought to
be-- and you can buy get a standing room monthly ticket, allowing you to
attend as many performances as you wish, for the equivalent of about forty
dollars.  Provided you choose a rich month, that'll buy you, say, fifteen
opera evenings.  On the other hand, very good seats for just one evening
will cost close to $200.

Very occasioanally my wife and I motor to Salzburg (during the Festival
season) or to Vienna where the prices are appreciably higher.  Tickets,
hotel prices and meals are probably even costlier than NY.

We do it NOT because the music's all that better, but because of the genius
loci, the thrall that goes with the Vienna and the Salzburg settings and
atmosphere.  The experience is ineffable, and provided you can somehow
manage to afford it, worth every Schilling.  For our money, it used to be
the same way with the Fenice in Venice, even though the music itself there
was not nearly up to the standards of Vienna, Salzburg, or for that matter,
Milan.

Put it down to je ne sais quoi.

Denis Fodor