Besieged ENO exposes some facts and figures
mainEnglish National Opera, under threat of losing state subsidy, has published its annual accounts with a sidebar of significant achievements. Here’s a selection:
The 2013/14 financial year ended on an unrestricted surplus of £208,000 following box office income of £9,684,000 across 117 performances (2012/13 = £9,678,000 across 132 performances). This represents a box office uplift of 11.4% per performance, and an increase in audience numbers of 11%
Average audience capacity for ENO productions was 75% in the 2,358 seat London Coliseum
201,361 audience members saw an ENO production at the London Coliseum or at the Barbican, with 70,000 attending for the first time
411,235 audience members attended one of 235 performances at the London Coliseum (ENO and Visiting Companies/Productions)
173,102 audience members saw an ENO production at one of our international co-producing partners. 11 productions opened around the world in 7 countries
302 performances of ENO shows took place in London and around the world
ENO is the world’s leading co-producer, having now worked with more than 35 opera companies and festivals
88% of singers and conductors were British born, trained or resident
A third of our tickets across the year were available for £30 or under, with prices starting at £5
Over 1.8 million unique visitors to our website – representing year-on-year growth of 40%
93% growth in Twitter followers, 65% growth in Facebook page likes
Three productions broadcast on BBC Radio 3, reaching over 450,000 listeners
Crisis? What crisis?
So if Opera is for the ‘elite’ only there must be a lot more ‘elite’ than there used to be.
Yes, in fact ‘elite’ is becoming too damn common and a new pejorative will have to be found.
Thanks, Norman. Great stats.
The management still could not get its act together sufficiently to film the recent triumphant Mastersingers, which would have been the best advertisement possible for the company’s work and mission…
OK, a small amount of research will also turn up liabilities for March 2013 to 2014 of 6.9 million, with cash of 4.7 million. I would hope, that come accounts filed March 2015, to see a 208,000 difference in the relationship of those two figures.
210,000 ish people attended non ENO performances at The Coliseum, and that, on their released figures, is more than 50%. That sounds like someone else taking profit to me. Surely the way to operate successfully is to try to make as much profit as possible, rather than to try and work to a budget. Where does the profit from Catering/Bars go? That would probably equate to millions. Productions filmed for, or live, on Sky and live in the Cinema, where are the DVDs or merchandising.
Seems to me that “Bums on seats” works to a certain extent (or at least to the tune of £208,000 on a good year), but taking the profit that everyone else seems to be taking from the Coliseum, would work even better.