I'm at the first night, martle, on Tuesday 15th April. I'm pretty sure that opilec will be there too.

I'm going on 25 April.

(That reminds me, I meant to ask a similar question on the 'Love and other Demons' thread. Perhaps I'll pop over and do that now.)

See you at the first night! (of The Minotaur, I mean).  Others from TOP will be there too.

You can read more information about The Minotaur here and David Harsent's libretto will be published soon.

No wonder there's all this talk of opera being too elitist. 

Yes I know, Ruth, my rolling eyes weren't directed at you, just at the fact that the majority of people who might want to see this piece won't be able to afford tickets, and many regular opera-goers will stay away, renewing the self-fulfilling prophecy of new works for the opera house being expensive flops. It'll have to be a special offer for me.

I take your point, Richard, but I paid £5 for my ticket, standing in the Stalls Circle, and there were quite a few available at that price - the fact that I subscribe to the Friends of Covent Garden only means that I had two chances to get such a ticket (at Friends' and Public booking, as a large proportion of tickets in each area are not released until public booking opens).  One of those chances was equally available to everybody - I use the past tense owing to the fact that booking has been open for quite a while now, therefore the best tickets in each area in both Friends' and Public allocations will now have gone - so anybody who was really keen to see it had an equal shot at booking as soon as public booking opened.  It does take a great deal of organisation to keep tabs on when things open for booking, but in my experience it's worth it as it's often the only way of ensuring access to genuinely affordable tickets for things.

I'm of the view that the Royal Opera is offering a newly-commissioned work in the main house with internationally-renowned singers, and an international press presence due to the company and venue involved.  As you know, this is extremely rare for a new opera, and the vast majority of such works are produced on a shoestring budget on various levels of the "fringe" or "new music" hierarchies.  I assume, though I may be mistaken, that the Royal Opera's ability to break even while offering such work is reliant on the £185(?) per seat paid by corporate sponsors and the moneyed classes for the best seats for some of the season's more popular fare.

On this basis I think £65 per top price seat (with many of the lower price tickets available for single-figure sums) is entirely reasonable, and as long as it sells (which it very likely will - Sophie's Choice and The Tempest sold out in the end) there's no reason why the ROH shouldn't charge at this level.