At 08:11 AM 4/8/01 -0500, Scott Morrison wrote:
>IS ANY OPERA TICKET WORTH $180?
>Even at the Met in New York, the answer is not always yes
>
>By PAUL HORSLEY - The Kansas City Star
>Date: 04/07/01 22:15
>
>NEW YORK -- 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.

For quite a few years, I've maintained a season subscription to the
Washington Opera, premium seats in the orchestra.  I went alone; on the
few occasions when I thought my wife might be interested in attending too,
I'd swap my ticket and pay the additional cost for two seats elsewhere.

My last ticket of the season, for *Marriage of Figaro* was for yesterday,
Saturday, April 7.  It turns out that was the eve of Passover and although
I'm not religious, we were invited to friends for the Seder (Passover
meal).  So I was able to manage a last minute swap the week before when I
was at the opera house for *Don Carlo*, and was able to attend *Figaro* on
Wednesday (4/4) w/ a seat in the second row of the first tier.  I'd turned
in a $168 ticket for one costing $118 and naturally received no refund for
the difference.  This experience, and Scott's post, reinforced my decision
not to renew my season's subscription.

Part of that decision was based on the selection of operas, which after
this season's, which had included *Parsifal*, *Don Carlo*, *Marriage of
Figaro*, *Trovatore* (all definite "must sees" for me), *Turandot*, which
for all my reservations explained elsewhere remains an interesting opera
whose production in a season should probably not be missed, *The Consul*,
about which I was curious after having heard it generally praised, *The
Barber of Seville* which retained its sparkle even though it had been
presented only a few years previously, and finally *Don Quichotte* which I
would normally not have bought a ticket for.  Next season has a less highly
charged list of operas of which I can now only recall *Carmen*, *Cosi fan
tutte*, *Tales of Hoffmann*, and *Of Mice and Men*.  Of these, I would
attend the last out of curiosity.  It's by Carlisle Floyd, who also wrote
*Susannah* which I heard the Washington Opera perform one or two seasons
ago and liked well enough to want to hear more by him.  The other mentioned
operas are wonderful works, all of which I've already heard w/ the
Washington Opera, which I don't particularly want to pay a three digit sum
to hear, and all of which I have recorded performances of.  And as for the
remaining operas, I can't even recall what they are.

What made up my mind was that I would be committing myself to spending
about $1,300 at a time when we've been taking a hit in the falling stock
market to hear operas I felt no compelling urge to attend.

Walter Meyer