Last Updated: December 8, 2008 00:01 EST

Met Opera Board Rolls Out Recession-Busting $25 Discount Seats
By Patrick Cole

Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) -- New York’s Metropolitan Opera, with ticket sales lagging and the economy in recession, said it will offer some of its priciest seats for weekend evening performances at $25 each for the rest of the season.

Starting today, the opera company will hold a weekly drawing on its Web site, Metopera.org, for orchestra and grand tier seats that usually sell for $140 to $295, Met General Manager Peter Gelb said. The discount tickets are available only for Friday and Saturday evening operas and are subsidized by $3 million in donations from the Met’s board.

“What we’re experiencing is some resistance at the highest ticket prices, whereas last season we were consistently selling out tickets in the highest price brackets in days leading up to the performance,” Gelb said in a phone interview. “That’s obviously a result of the economy.”

The $3 million to discount about 16,000 seats came from a group of managing directors on the board, Gelb said. The Met’s 45 managing directors include hedge fund manager Bruce Kovner of Caxton Associates LLC; Mercedes Bass, wife of billionaire investor Sid Bass; and Agvar Chemicals Inc. founder Agnes Varis, who started the opera house’s program that offers $100 orchestra seats to the public for $20 on weeknights.

Gelb said ticket sales this season at the 3,800-seat opera house have slipped about “2 to 3 percent” from last season. Varis suggested that the Met set up a discount program to boost ticket sales, and the idea was approved by the board, he said. He couldn’t say how many discounted seats will be available for a single performance. Last season, the Met sold 88 percent of its tickets.

The public can enter the ticket drawing on Mondays from 10 a.m through midnight New York time at http://www.metopera.org. The drawing will take place on Tuesday mornings, and winners’ names will be posted on the Web site at noon, Gelb said. There is a limit of two tickets per entry.

Winners must purchase the tickets by noon Wednesday either at the company’s box office at Lincoln Center, Columbus Avenue near 64th Street in Manhattan, or by calling the Met’s ticket service at +1-212-362-6000.

To contact the writer on this story: Patrick Cole in New York at pcole3@bloomberg.net.



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