Slight decline in Berlin audiences
mainAttendance at operas and concerts showed a slight dip in 2016, from 3.1 million to 3.05.
But the overall picture, released today, is impressive.
The Berlin Philharmonic sold almost quarter of a million tickets, at 91 percent of capacity.
The Konzerthas sold 150,000 seats.
Of the three opera houses, the Deutsche Oper played to 238,000 people (67%), the Komische Oper 192,000 (81%) and the Staatsoper, temporarily in the Schillertheater to 175,000 (83%).
Amazing to see audience decline in German is negligible. Germany appears to be one of the only countries which continues to fund classical music properly. Can we conclude that the decline of audiences elsewhere is related to the decline in funding?
“But the overall picture, released today, is impressive.”
67% at Deutsche Oper? Odd that similarly ‘impressive’ attendance levels at Lincoln Centre have Mr Lebrecht reaching into his lexicon of loathing to damn Mr Gelb for his inept running of the MET.
Well, the MET audience has been declining. Perhaps the Deutsche Oper number is steady, if still surprisingly low. No intention of defending NL here, just an observation that a similar percentage sold at one point in time may be more of a problem for one house than the other.
Not to defend Mr. Lebrecht’s unfair and often misleading MET bashing, but Berlin is about 1/3 the size of NY and has three opera houses.
Digital Concert Hall
Considering the deutsche Oper is only at 67%, they should offer more special deals, discounts…. maybe lower the prices for the cheap seats… they aren’t crazy expensive, but €30-40 is a bit steep for a lot of berliners.
Their advertising isn’t very good either. They mostly use photographs (presumably from the same photographer for the last two seasons) that have absolutely nothing to do with the opera or the style of the production… they have a lot of advertisements, but just not very compelling…. in a crazy colorful city like Berlin, advertisments must also be crazy and creative if anyone is going to notice them.