The
Metropolitan Opera, whose 2009-2010 season opens with Puccini's
Tosca on September 21, is living like it's 2007 (other season highlights include Offenbach's
Les Contes d'Hoffmann and Leoš JanáÄ�ek’s
From the House of the Dead, pictured). As reported in the
Associated Press, after tickets for the Met Opera's upcoming season went on sale on Sunday sales from the first day amounted to $2.5 million. That would be their biggest opening day sale figure ever, eclipsing last year's $2 million, and the $2.1 million worth of tickets sold when the box office opened two years ago, its previous sales record.
This flies in the face of just about everything we've assumed about people's art and entertainment budgets in times of financial hardship. Then again, maybe folks are forgoing a few months' Netflix subscriptions to splurge on a lavish production of the highest of "high" arts. Whatever's going on here, it makes the upcoming Met Opera season look all the more appealing. Click here to check out what they're offering this season (and shop for whatever nosebleed seats might be left).