Big-beast feativals are back on top
OrchestrasSalzburg today declared 98.2 percent ticket sales.
Bayreuth put up sold-out notices.
Lucerne has yet to announce but it’s clear that the elite festivals are back where they were before Covid.
Which is good for festival finances, but the humility has gone. The rich have inherited the earth all over again.
Dear Mr. Lebrecht ,
Can you please explain the choice of your photo ( a masked woman ) ?
Thank you
Fair enough question … but interestingly you avoid the central point being made that very elitist, incredibly insular festivals pandering to the extremely rich are back in business …
It’s an official “100 Years Salzburger Festspiele” mask, imprinted with the symbol of the festival.
You could have answered your own question: because the photo made you click on the article and leave a comment that generated further comments, thereby increasing reader engagement with the site, thereby increasing NL’s income from advertisers on the site.
Not the rich. I have heard the Mutter/Barenboim and two Vienna Phil concerts Muti and Dudamel) for 80 euros or less. All of them magnificent.
… and that’s ‘cheap’?! My EIF Usher Hall seats were about £20.00, even for Yuja Wang. If you’re interested in attracting audiences from the relatively impoverished – that’s most of us – you’ll need to do better than €50!
Good point. The expensive seats, close to the stage, sometimes have the better view but not the better acoustics. Top balconies center usually have some of the lowest prices and excellent acoustics. If there is a piano, center right is best: the side that doesn’t see the hands. (Back in the days when I ordered tickets online, salespeople thought I was misspeaking about the right side…)
oops, I meant when I ordered tickets by phone.
I completely agree… since 1978.
Finding a spot of negative in good arts news is a real talent, NL.
But sure, folks that can afford to pay high prices for tix are certainly the villains.
What’s with the sneer at the end, classical music has always belonged to the rich elite, the only difference is in the past they were called the nobility, nowadays it’s people who do well for themselves and want finer things in life.
Somewhat smug and complacent! Europe, especially Germany, has long sought to subsidise performing arts – yes even classical music and opera – so that the riff-raff can afford to attend! Sounds to me very much like an élitist American view of, eh, entitlement!
The sneer is because in the US, they’d find a way to destroy a festival of wealthy people enjoying great music.
In fact, the talking points of a candidate interviewing for a top American administrative position would be to suggest becoming exactly opposite of Bayreuth.
Sad but true.
Not always, Kurt. For a brief few decades in the UK, after the creation of the Arts Councils, bringing classical music to the masses here through ticket subsidy was considered a good thing. Most concerts had tickets at prices accessible to almost everyone. These days, while prices are still cheap compared to many other countries, they are inexorably moving out of the reach of ever larger numbers of people. It’s a travesty, and an insult to the fine people who had the vision to set up the Arts Councils. Professional performing arts organisations in the UK are mostly on their knees or worse. Yet everyone, including foreign tourists, gets to visit some of the world’s greatest museums and art galleries in the UK completely free. It’s a sad situation.
Agree. Just a little point: prices aren’t cheap, tickets are. Prices are low.
Why do these snide asides constantly have me rehearsing The Seven Deadly Sins.
Featival. noun
A festival that achieves the disgraceful feat of selling all its high-priced tickets.
Or in other words:
“Der Teufel scheisst auf einen Haufen.”
It’s amazing these kind of celebrity shows (can) go on despite inflation and the take-home messages of Jedermann and The Gambler.
Here in the UK non classical aficionados pay fortunes to see Taylor Swift, football matches and Glastonbury.
The word ‘elitist’ is nowhere to be seen.
No, just ‘smug’.