The audience for live classical music, theater and dance is, like, dying.
Or, like, maybe not.
That said, Scorca is among many who cite two logical reasons for a noticeable lack of young adults in all seats. Quite simply, ticket prices can be steep — and even if they have the money, young people often don’t have the time. People in their 20s, he says, are late-night clubbing or off on ski weekends. The question for them is seldom, “Dude, where’s my ‘Carmen’?” And people in their 30s may be consumed with toddlers and careers.
More highbrow entertainment doesn’t generally get on the agenda “until someone on this trajectory gets to be in their mid-40s, when the kids are old enough to leave on their own and the knees won’t take the skiing and they want to be home by 11 o’clock at night,” Scorca says.
(May I tell you I absolutely hate “highbrow” being used there. Sigh.)
Full article here.
This is the first year Dan and I have ever bought season tickets to anything. This year we have San Francisco Opera season tickets. And I love it! We finally have the time (even if we don’t really have the $$) and we made it happen. I suspect others are in a similar situation. So yeah, the audience has a lot of old people. If 51 is old. It doesn’t feel old. At least not most of the time.
To be honest, I’m not sure the money is much of a factor; younger people do go to rock concerts and I hear those tickets can be rather steep too. Hmmm. Searching … searching … The Who concert: tickets range from $39.50 to $350. Madonna: $55 to $350. Coldplay, less expensive: $39.50 to $89.50. New York Philharmonic lists the concert I checked as $26 to $72.
That kind of makes it seem as if money isn’t the issue, you know?
Now I will admit Dan and I aren’t your “typical” customer, since both of us are in music. But still, I do believe other people start going to these things when they find they finally have the time to spare, are not as into the party stuff, and do begin to have the desire to hear something other than rock. It can happen. And maybe they like to sit down too. And yes, not everyone will like the opera or symphony and will continue to attend other kinds of concerts. I’m just not as freaked over the “we are dying” thing. Maybe it’s the one place where I’m not a pessimist, eh? I save that for reeds, anyway.
Eek! I’m showing my age! If I were younger I would have typed “anyways”. 😉
