Opera Philadelphia is lowering all tickets to $11 under new general director Anthony Roth Costanzo, establishing a 鈥減ick your price鈥� model aimed at widening the company鈥檚 audience.
Costanzo announced Tuesday the company has raised $7 million since June 1 when he replaced The money addressed debt and enabled the new model, in which people can pay more than the minimum if they want to.
鈥淭his is chapter one of a long-term turnaround story,鈥� Costanzo said. 鈥淐reating a new place for opera in our current time requires risk. It doesn鈥檛 require doubling down on safe choices, and that鈥檚 going to mean that we have to enable failure.鈥�
Costanzo, a 42-year-old countertenor with an active singing career on the world鈥檚 top stages, took over ahead of a 2024-25 season trimmed to nine performances, down from 30 in 2018-19, the last season before the coronavirus pandemic, and 16 in 2022-23. Tickets for this season originally were priced at $30-$300.
鈥淓very dollar you spend over $11 helps to not only support the opera, but support the people who want to come to the opera,鈥� Costanzo said. 鈥淚t will certainly represent a decrease in income from ticket sales. But it will represent an increase in contributed revenue and I believe also in the future in foundation revenue and hopefully corporate revenue.鈥�
Opera Philadelphia sold 14,211 tickets last season at an average of $85.77, resulting in 13% of the company鈥檚 revenue. In the 2022-23 season, 17,464 tickets were sold at an average of $78.32, also bringing in 13% of revenue.
This season鈥檚 schedule at the Academy of Music, which has about 1,800 full-view seats, includes three performances of beginning with its U.S. premiere on Sept. 25, two performances Joseph Bologne鈥檚 鈥淭he Anonymous Lover鈥� starting Jan. 31 and four performances of Mozart鈥檚 鈥淒on Giovanni鈥� opening April 25. The company scrapped its innovative season-opening festival as part of budget cutting.
Costanzo spoke with Henry Timms, the outgoing president of New York鈥檚 Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, which since 2022 has relied on a choose-what-you-pay model starting at $5 for many events during its 鈥淪ummer for the City鈥� schedule.
Costanzo said the past model had been predicated on including popular titles such as Bizet's 鈥淐armen,鈥� intended to spur ticket sales.
鈥淲e market to the people who can afford $150 tickets. That changes the feel of the marketing. It changes the demographics of who we market to and where we market,鈥� Costanzo said. 鈥淭icket price and selling tickets becomes a real focal point of how we create art form in our time. And I think that鈥檚 a shame. I think it limits us and hinders innovation and progress.鈥�
Ronald Blum, The Associated Press
