Opera Philadelphia Makes All Tickets $11 for the 2024-25 Season
The bold new “Pick Your Price” initiative is aimed at bringing new audiences to the opera.
Nicole Heaston is Missy Mazzoli’s The Listeners
Erik Berg
Opera Philadelphia has announced that all tickets for every performance in the 2024-25 season will be available for $11, or a higher price of the buyer’s choosing, as part of a new initiative called Pick Your Price, which aims to make opera more accessible.
The new pricing initiative was announced by countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, who became the company’s general director back in June, when the company was facing a budget shortfall and outstanding debt. Within 10 weeks of Costanzo taking office, Opera Philadelphia raised over $7 million in gifts and pledges, wiping out the debt and allowing the company to explore new ideas like the Pick Your Price initiative.
Said Costanzo in a statement: “Price can be a big barrier to entry at the opera, and ticket sales are a metric that too often determines how we program, how we engage, and how we market. If we are worried about making sure we sell expensive tickets, it limits the possibility of who we reach and what we make. Pick Your Price invites everyone to connect with Opera Philadelphia at a price that works for them.”
Opera Philadelphia’s 2024-25 season begins next month with the American premiere of Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s The Listeners, directed by Tony nominee Lileana Blain-Cruz. The Listeners, one of the biggest productions Opera Philadelphia has ever mounted, tells the story of a suburban middle-class mother who notices a mysterious “hum” that only a few people, known as the “Listeners,” can hear.
“Innovation is born of risk,” said Costanzo, “and risk inherently brings the possibility of failure, but as an industry, we can no longer afford to make only safe choices. The hardest work is still ahead of us as we pave a responsible path to reach new highs.”
For more information about the season, and the Pick Your Price initiative, visit OperaPhila.org.
