Stunned

[gingerjon]

Back in the dim and distant (1999) I moved to London and started going to opera regularly by sitting in the balcony at the ENO. It cost £10 a performance. A couple of years later they hiked the price to £12.

I've just, out of curiosity, looked at the prices for La Boheme later this year. A balcony seat is £39.

I'm not sure I have anything to say to that beyond a jaw drop and a sense of sad anger.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Back in the dim and distant (1999) I moved to London and started going to opera regularly by sitting in the balcony at the ENO. It cost £10 a performance. A couple of years later they hiked the price to £12.

I've just, out of curiosity, looked at the prices for La Boheme later this year. A balcony seat is £39.

I'm not sure I have anything to say to that beyond a jaw drop and a sense of sad anger.

Anger at whom? I'm guessing that your earlier seats were subsidised rather more by HM Gov't (alias HM's taxpayers) than they are now. If so, can anyone say how much of a difference this has made? Or are we just paying singers (and directors?) a helluva lot more?

[teamsaint]

GJ, Time Out offers often cover ENO, if you are actually looking for seats.

WNO at the mayflower in Southampton always have balcony seats for £7.50

As gongers says, there is great value to be had in music. I see fab concerts at the RFH for £9.

On a slow night you can easily move to a much better seat at the interval, no questions asked.

it's minimum £33 for a seat at the footy at Southampton

ENO balcony tix start at £30 for la Boheme and £ 25 for Cosi, which doesn't seem too bad.

[MrGongGong]

You should try the ROH matey

Traviata starts at £14
the Royal Ballet starts at £4.00
cheaper than the footy innit

It's cheaper (comparatively) than it ever has been.



Erm, having a look at ENO
Balcony seats start at £12 for Cosi fan tutte

[Boilk]

For what promises to be an extremely decent slice of contemporary opera, Julian Anderson's
new opera Thebans can be seen at ENO next month in the Upper Circle for a mere £10 upwards.

Buy in person and you can forget any booking fee, I think.

[gingerjon]

For what promises to be an extremely decent slice of contemporary opera, Julian Anderson's
new opera Thebans can be seen at ENO next month in the Upper Circle for a mere £10 upwards.

Buy in person and you can forget any booking fee, I think.

So it does. That's a bit more like it. Sadly, I don't think I'm anywhere near ENO on any of the performance dates.

Done a bit more playing with the seat picker thing since and can find cheaper when being smart although the Boheme balcony seat price seems to flick between £12 and £25 on a whim for the front two rows. My overall stunned-ness hasn't gone away though: a seat that cost £10 15 years ago shouldn't even be close to £39 now. By no definition is it a comfortable place to watch from (even after the refurb) and I think it's a bit cheeky to only mark some as semi-restricted when the view of the stage is not really complete from there from any of the seats.

Anyway, grumbling over ...