Yet again very interesting and stimulating thoughts, Molly. You humorously suggest that we might consider elite, exclusive concerts for the wealthy. Actually, we have many practices similar to that already. The Met, for example, holds numerous Galas and other special events for rich people that are almost exactly what you describe.

For perspective, we might look at ticket prices at the Met and compare them to the Stuttgart Opera. (Forgive me for the sea of numerical data here. This would best be presented with graphs and charts.) In 2001, the Met's website showed that the average price for a ticket was about $150. (It's probably a good bit more now.) By comparison, the website of the Stuttgart opera showed that the average price of its tickets was only $30. Tickets for the Met were thus on average five times more expensive than in Stuttgart. ( The gap is likely wider now.)

It should also be noted that Stuttgart is a world class house. In 2001, critics had named it the best opera house in Germany for two years running.

The problems with high priced tickets at the Met are made even worse because it runs a priority ticket, and special privileges service, for its extensive donor program. In 2001, the donor program was broken into categories that required donations ranging from $1500 to $15,000. The more money given, the more privileges. Members in each category are given names such as "Subscribers, Patrons, and Guild Members." There is competition among the donors for special status, so the sums for entitlements actually go many, many times higher.

The worst part is that most of the good seats at the Met are only available to people in the donor program. Here is how the Met website described the situation:

"Subscribers to Full-Series or Mini-Series receive the best seats in the
house which are guaranteed for renewal each year. Subscribers', Patrons',
and Guild Members' ticket requests are processed before tickets go on sale
to the general public. Additionally, Subscribers have exclusive privileges
including ticket exchanges, advance notice of all Met performances, and
priority invitations to Galas and other Special Events."

People can thus be assured of getting good seats ONLY if they are in the donor program. And as noted, these "Galas and other Special Events" are for the most part exactly like the elitist, wine-and-cheese under candelabra events you humorously suggested. Those who only donate $1500 are often not even invited to the Galas. Those who pay around $7000 are allowed into special bars at the Met. Those who donate $15,000 get to sit closer to the artists at lavish, gala dinners. Those who donate millions get to sit even closer, and so.

The "series" ticket packages reserved for donors range from 6 to 10 tickets. For the most economical decent seats (Dress Circle) the series prices for a couple were from $960 to $1600. For the most expensive seats it cost a couple from $1650 to $2750.

But the reserved seating program required on average a donation of $7000. Combined with the average series ticket prices for a couple, the sum came to about $9000 a year. What middle class couple can shell out around $9000 for six opera evenings per season in mid-range seats? By contrast, six evenings for a couple in excellent seats at the Stuttgart Opera would cost less than $200. In fact, in 2001 the most expensive seats in the house were only $70. And a status oriented donor program doesn't even exist.

I admire the attempts of the Met and many other arts organizations to reach a wider public, but they face systemic problems in funding that create forms of cultural plutocracy. The preferential treatment given to the wealthy in many of our top cultural institutions is often distastefully ostentatious. It is exactly our funding system that creates these exorbitant prices and repugnant patrician rituals that drive people away from classical music.

When was the last time you had an orchestra level seat for opera in all of its glory, performed by a top notch professional ensemble in a real, fully equipped opera house? Do you even plan to experience that in your life time? In the United States, about 250 million (a quarter of a billion) people would have to travel hundreds of miles to see an opera in a real opera house. Including the trip, it would probably cost them at least a couple thousand dollars. These problems with the performing arts are an astounding circumstance for the richest country in the history of humanity.

Anyway, our funding system really is a joke, Molly.

(There are two state-funded "experimental" ensembles in Europe like the ones Steven Tepper suggested. If I have time before this blog ends, I will write about them and some of their projects. I am tied up with things so I might not make it.)

William Osborne
William@osborne-conant.org
www.osborne-conant.org

Molly wrote:

But why are we trying to force the music into people's lives? Once they escape public school, there's no organization running around trying to make Americans buy copies of Joyce. If popularizing the orchestra seems a false step, maybe we should go the other way and make it a very exclusive event. Beautiful settings, great food, and an intimate concert performed by the most talented musicians we can find. Premium product, premium price. I believe they did this in the courts of France, and it worked out quite well. (Fine. The general populace can watch via webcam.)

Okay, I didn't really mean that last graph seriously.

Why the hell not? It's a damn good idea, and the way to go. Marketing types and their fellow travelers in the music critic fraternity obsessed with putting "young butts in seats" can't seem to get it through their heads that, "it's not a matter of putting young butts in seats, but of putting the right kind of young butts in seats; butts belonging to those who are in those seats because they've been lured there not by the promise of a circus act or quasi-rock or -pop "concert" or vaudeville show in which classical music plays some part, but by an interest in, curiosity about, or love of classical music," to quote myself.

Your only-kidding graf is, IMNSHO, a start in the right direction.

ACD