The Canadian Opera Company may have pasted on its brightest official smile while releasing its season results yesterday, but the real news is tragic, not cheerful.
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In a small but telling example of what happens when news media let go of experienced journalists, even the most upright of arts organizations can get away with an out-of-context message broadcast and published by people who re-write press releases.
Here is how the country’s flagship opera presenter summed up its season in a press release yesterday:
The Canadian Opera Company has closed another successful opera season by recording an average attendance of 90% for 2012/2013. A total of 114,133 patrons attended the 61 performances of the company’s seven mainstage productions this season in the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts: Verdi’s Il Trovatore, Johann Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus, Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito, Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, Richard Strauss’s Salome and Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites.
This season, the COC recorded 73,606 subscription tickets and 35,691 single tickets, generating a net ticket revenue of $9.9 million. The 12/13 season also saw at leas 9,278 of these tickets sold to people under the age of 30.
The COC’s press release continued with a self-congratulatory list of accolades and accomplishments that did not mention how these numbers represent the latest instalment of a steady downward trend that began three years ago.
The long-term numbers are alarming: Since the 2009-10 season, the Canadian Opera Company’s net ticket revenues have fallen by 23.5 per cent, while overall attendance has dropped by 16.7 per cent. The discrepancy in the two declines is testament to the additional discounts that were offered at the box office during the 2012-13 season.
As part of broad cost-cutting moves, the Canadian Opera Company presented six fewer performances in 2012-13 than during the previous year — a 9 per cent drop — but ticket revenues decreased by $1.9 million — 16 per cent in absolute terms.
Because ticket demand outstripped supply at the opening of the Four Seasons Centre for the 2006-07 season, ending up with 90 per cent of seats sold six years later still looks good on paper.
But you can bet that there are some pretty serious discussions taking place behind closed doors regarding the prospects for 2014-15 (since next season is already cast in stone).
Will the company be able to sustain even a 60-performance season with reduced revenue? Will the organization be able to continue to eek out the slimmest of surpluses, thanks to transfers from rainy-day funds?
Does this mean that the prospect of seeing a new mainstage Canadian opera on the Canadian Opera Company season roster become dimmer than ever?
The COC has been doing an amazing job of not just supporting but showcasing our incredible crop of Canadian opera singers. Also, whether you like them or not, you have to admit that the company has also been taking some necessary risks with directors and productions.
The COC continues to maintain its educational outreach programmes, which this past season reached nearly 16,000 children with the Xstrata Ensemble Studio School Tour alone. The Toronto Symphony Orchestra, also facing financial pressures has, meanwhile, eliminated most of its in-school programming for next season.
Will the Canadian Opera Company be able to afford its summer opera camp and after-school opera programmes in the future?
Our city’s musical bounty sits perched on a knife’s edge.
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Here are some hard numbers for comparison purposes — all drawn from Canadian Opera Company press releases:
2012-13: 114,133 tickets sold to 61 performances (1,871 per show). Net box office revenue: $9.9 million.
2011-12: 125,238 tickets sold to 67 performances (1,869 per show). Net box office revenue: $11.8 million.
2010-11: 129,450 tickets sold to 66 performances (1,961 per show). Net box office revenue: $12.3 million.
2009-10: 137,000 tickets sold to 69 performances (1,985 per show). Net box office revenue: $12.94 million.
John Terauds
- Classical Music 101: What Does A Conductor Do? - June 17, 2019
- Classical Music 101 | What Does Period Instrument Mean? - May 6, 2019
- CLASSICAL MUSIC 101 | What Does It Mean To Be In Tune? - April 23, 2019
