Members may be interested to know that you can apply for tickets without
purchasing a copy of the Sun. Simply go to www.thesun.co.uk/opera

Quite. In order to apply for this offer Sun readers have to complete the ROH usual registration form. This presumably means that they will spend the rest of their lives receiving junk mail offering tickets for £3000 gala evenings and asking them to remember the ROH in their will and all the other rubbish that I currantly get bombarded with.

It was certainly the case last time I was there, martle.  Most venues ask for your details and some will give plausible explanations as to why they're asking.  The Cultureville Phil, for example, will warn you that they can't replace lost tickets unless they have your details; but if you insist on taking that chance they'll sell you them.  The ROH is the only one I know of that refuses to sell tickets without a name and address.  And their explanations are preposterous.  First they try to claim it's a legal requirement: it's not.  Then they say it's so they know who's in the building if there's an emergency: but they'll sell multiple tickets to one person with no idea who is going to be using them.  And, to cap it all, they use the 'terrorist threat' as some sort of catch-all excuse: but they don't verify the buyer's identity beyond using the national postcode file to check that the address and postcode match.  So if you're planning to buy tickets over the counter and don't want to go on their database, make sure the address you give them has a matching postcode.

I don't know why the ROH has this policy.  The only other instution I know that requires a name and address is Chester Racecourse.  Their excuse is that the software is set up so it can't complete the issuing process without a name and address; but if you politely decline they will put dummy details in, thus saving you the bother of making them up  yourself.

No doubt, IGI.  And I think they would be justified in collecting information to tie tickets obtained under this offer to individuals and thus cut out the touts.  But my guess is they won't do that.  It's also possible there are other venues which operate the ROH's policy of requiring a name and address for all sales and I simply haven't noticed because (like, say, the RAH) they already have my basic details because I've booked online with them.  I still say there's something sinister about being told, when you turn up in person at the box office with cash in hand, that you can't have as much as a single ticket without giving your name and address.  And I've just looked at the ROH's registration form (you can't book online without completing it) and it has compulsory fields for postal address and email, and for date of birth.

Quite, Ruth.  But you don't need an email address to buy tickets and you don't need a postal address to opt-in to email information.  In a customer oriented system both would be optional fields until they were needed or you would be able to do either separately eg an airline will usually give you the option of registering (in which case, for your own convenience, you leave certain details with them) or proceeding to payment without registering.  If the ROH offers this option, I've never found it; and  d.o.b. is clearly not needed for anything other than the ROH's marketing purposes and ought to be optional.