Re: Symphony's brass dropped the baton in promoting Wagner program

[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Mike Richter) wrote in message news:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
> Symphony's brass dropped the baton in promoting Wagner program
> By Sarah Bryan Miller
> 11/23/2003 
> 
> What were they thinking? 
> 
> The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra's artistic side didn't stint with
> last weekend's all-Wagner program. They hired three of the world's
> greatest Wagnerian singers: soprano Cheryl Studer, tenor Mark Baker
> and bass Eric Halfvarson. They programmed them in the first act of
> "Die Walkure" and in the "Liebestod" from "Tristan und Isolde." It was
> the finest night for operatic singing at Powell Symphony Hall in the
> last five years.
> 
> And the marketing side advertised ... "The Ride of the Valkyries." 
> 
> Those who logged onto the orchestra's Web site, at www.slso.org, knew
> that the singers were scheduled. But those who rely on print and radio
> ads to make their concert-going decisions didn't have a clue: There
> was no mention of the vocal aspects.
> 
> The orchestra's marketing director, Stephen Duncan, defended his focus
> in an e-mail: "In the entertainment business, effective advertising
> teases the audience's interest, saying little, suggesting much more.
> ... Particularly in a radio spot, we are constricted on time. We can't
> buy more seconds to communicate everything, so we suggest, inviting
> the listener, directing them to more information. We present the most
> attractive aspect of the concert, just as a movie trailer or TV promo
> would."
>   
> "The Ride of the Valkyries" in an instruments-only version was "the
> most attractive aspect" of that concert? Well, perhaps in a radio
> spot; after all, it's familiar - almost too familiar. But the failure
> to list the singers in the Symphony's print advertising is absurd.
> Duncan says that the other advertising is "designed to drive people to
> the Web site where they can get complete concert information including
> program notes." But many people still don't have Internet access - and
> many others don't have time to go wandering around the Web looking for
> more details. They expect to get the basics in the ads, and singing
> that occupies three-quarters of the evening is about as basic as you
> can get.
> 
> What Duncan - who, after all, works for a symphony orchestra - perhaps
> doesn't realize is that Wagnerites are a determined group who will
> travel long distances and buy tickets to multiple performances to get
> a shot of live Wagnerian singing. He may not understand the related
> operatic phenomenon of diva devotion. Cheryl Studer has a huge
> following and sings very rarely in the United States. More of her fans
> would have been there - if they'd known she was coming.
> 
> I suspect that the real story behind the eccentric marketing plan is a
> perception that people here don't like singing and won't go out for
> singing. That's the kind of mindset that brings us arias played only
> in instrumental transcriptions on our local classical music station.
> But based on the calls and e-mails I received in the past several
> days, more people would have bought tickets if they'd known sooner.
> And sales reportedly stepped up after the news of who was coming was
> mentioned in my Sunday column and a profile of Halfvarson ran in Get
> Out.
> 
> Says Duncan, "Both Friday and Saturday's concerts sold 2,300 tickets
> and exceeded the sales goal by 19 percent."
> 
> But they could have been sellouts. They should have been sellouts.
> It's an opportunity lost.
> 
> #####################################
> 
> Mike
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> http://www.mrichter.com/


Well, Ms Studer WAS a sellout in September when she did Wiesiendonck
Lieder amd the Four Last Songs of Richard Strauss with the Romanian
Radio Chamber Orchestra.

But there again the top ticket price was $8 which may mean they didn't
have to "promote" it too much.

Kind regards,
Alan M. Watkins