The always entertaining Opera 5 have a couple of events coming up. Firts there’s a fundraiser at Rosemarie Umetsu’s called Equinox: Day vs. Night. Two teams of singers, Team Day and Team Night, will battle for the greatest prize of all: Ruler of the Sky! It’s on Tuesday September 9th at 6pm and there will be drinks and food provided by the University Avenue Fionn MacCools 181 University Avenue. We are promised performances by Claire de Sévigné, Lucia Cesaroni, Peter Bass, Jeremy Ludwig, Beste Kalender, Maika’i Nash and more. Let’s hope it’s a bit cooler than last year! Tickets are $25 and can be purchased here: https://be-mused.ca/group/opera5
Then there’s the show postponed from the Spring which will open the new Alliance Française de Toronto – Centre cultural Theatre. It features performances of Reynaldo Hahn’s L’île du rêve and Jacques Offenbach’s Ba-ta-clan. Performances are at 7.30 pm on September 19th, 20th and 21st. The Alliance Française is at 24 Spadina Rd (just north of Bloor) and just happens to be where I learned that the First Gulf War had begun. Tickets as above.
2013/14 saw the decline in ticket sales and box office revenue at the COC continue, though less precipitously than in the previous couple of years. Sales were down from 109297 tickets in 2012/13 to 106748 seats sold in 2013/14. Revenue was also down from $9.9 million to $9.7 million. A reduction in performances boosted capacity utilisation to 94% but heavy discounting at both ends of the season left the revenue per seat essentially static at just under $91.
