Maybe attending 17 hours of opera about the adventures of a phalanx of German gods and goddesses — featuring a cast of hundreds, not to mention splashy pyrotechnics — should cost a fortune.
So passionate are “Ring” fans and so rare is a U.S. “Ring” cycle, that the Washington National Opera has sold about 90 percent of the 26,000 available tickets, with still four weeks to go. The majority, or some 17,000 seats, were sold in four-opera packages starting at $300 and climbing to $2,000. The remaining single tickets are selling for $75 to $525 each, significantly more than the $25 to $300 they cost for the WNO’s last production, “Lost in the Stars.”
For the first time, the opera linked priority seating to a hefty donation. A patron was required to give at least $2,500 in order to join the “priority” ranks, allowing them to get seats before non-donors. Each donation covered a pair of seats— although donors giving $10,000 and higher were eligible for four.
The tactics have not surprised “Ring” lovers, who have been conditioned to accept price hikes and demands for donations. Everyone else does, they say with a shrug, so why shouldn’t the WNO?
“I wasn’t thrilled, but truthfully I wasn’t surprised,” said Maeva Marcus, a subscriber from Bethesda. “I don’t know that I was happy to give up the money, but I am very excited to be going to the ‘Ring.’ ”
WNO officials say the price increases are tied to the “Ring’s” added costs. The final offering of its 2015-2016 season is actually four operas that are performed three times over 23 days. It involves hundreds of singers, musicians and stagehands.
And that makes it hugely expensive. WNO Executive Director Michael L. Mael declined to provide the production’s budget, saying only that the WNO’s season is about $10 million more than typical years, which range between $25 million to $30 million.
“It is four separate productions, and any individual one is expensive relative to a traditional opera production,” said Mael. “And the challenge is, you’re doing four of them and four of them simultaneously.”
The price hike is intended to cover the additional expenses, not to line the opera’s coffers. Even if it sells all tickets at inflated prices, it won’t cover its costs, Mael said. “We have exceeded our revenue goal already,” he said, but they must meet their fundraising goal in order to break even.
That’s why linking donations to access makes sense. Arts groups routinely give perks to members and other small donors, including early access to ticket sales. Ticket buyers interested in the four-opera package were asked to donate at least $2,500 to move to the front of the line when it was time to designate seats. The minimum donation also includes intermission receptions, while bigger donors receive access to parties, rehearsals and other events.
It’s a tactic borrowed from the playbooks of the Metropolitan Opera, the Seattle Opera and others. The Met first offers tickets for sale to full-season subscribers and those who donate at least $2,500, and next in line are individuals willing to purchase the four-opera cycle at prices that include a contribution, said a Met spokesman. That practice dates back to the mid-’70s, he said.
San Francisco Opera added a contribution to the price for the first round of tickets it sold; four-opera packages sold for $120 to $2,800, or $20 to $1,360 more than non-priority sales. The Seattle Opera, which has presented “The Ring” five times in the past 20 years, also required a donation to purchase the best seats, officials said. The “Ring” productions resulted in 3
times the revenue from other operas, they said.
“It’s a great strategy and the most ethical one,” said Sherry Wagner-Henry, director of the Bolz Center for Arts Administration at the University of Wisconsin’s School of Business. “Ask those who are most interested and most willing for it to happen to pay for it to happen.”
The demand for the “Ring” allows companies to dispense with typical practices such as offering discounts to those who purchase multiple tickets well in advance. Those buying the entire cycle were guaranteed the same seats for each of their four performances, but they received no financial incentive.
And yet about 65 percent of all tickets were purchased by patrons attending the four-opera cycle, a percentage significantly higher than normal. The same was true in San Francisco. Some 89 percent of the ticket s sold to the 2011 “Ring” were purchased as cycles. That company raised ticket prices too, from the normal $20-$310 to $25-$360.
The WNO’s last tactic is dynamic pricing for single tickets, which went on sale Feb. 1. The first and third cycle of performances have proved more popular, so those concerts cost more. For example, last week a ticket in the rear orchestra for the third opera, “Siegfried,” was going for $279 for the second performance on May 13, but $499 for the final performance May 20, a difference of $220.
The Ring At the Kennedy Center April 30-May 22. $75-$525. kennedy-center.org. 202-467-4600.
