Philadelphia’s priciest ticket
OrchestrasThis weekend’s orchestral concert with the English rock star Sting saw prices shooting up to $800 a seat.
Worth it?
Peter Dobbrin takes a view here.
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Does anyone know how much Sting was paid?
Read David Byrne’s excellent book “How Music Works” for a pretty close idea of what percent of that money is going to whom.
I was there. My ticket for nose bleeds was $200 and well worth it. Sting sounded amazing. The orchestral charts were very, very well done and the sound production was spot on. Fantastic show. I’ll never forget it.
800? lol. No. Don’t think I’d even pay that much if Lenny rose from the dead in his peak form to conduct the Vienna or NyPhil in a Mahler Symphony.
That money i can buy a lot of CDS
People routinely pay two to three times this much to see major sporting events and no one bats an eye. Why is this not okay for classical music? Both nights sold out the day it went on sale so obviously the market could easily bare it.
And they have just as questionable judgement. It’s really not ok for either of them.
And they say classical music is elitist and unaffordable to the poor and underpriviledged. It’s ALL about hype and public interest. Arts organizations don’t need to lower their prices or standards, they just need to market better and drive up the hype…like the old Three Tenors. In Pop Culture, the more money you charge, the higher the perceived artistic worth.