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

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."