The Met Opera in New York has sold 72% of tickets this season, up from 66% and the highest since the pandemic

NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — The Metropolitan Opera has sold 72% of its available tickets this season, up from 66% in 2022-23 and a 61% increase from the first season after the pandemic.

Box office receipts remained below 75% in 2018-19 and the 76% projected for 2019-20 before the mid-March shutdown caused by the COVID pandemic, the company said Thursday.

“We are on the right track in terms of ticket sales and the most impressive thing is the fact that the audience is noticeably younger,” Met general manager Peter Gelb he said.

Factoring in discounted tickets, the Met made 64% of its potential box office revenue, an increase from 57% in 2022-23. Gelb said single-ticket buyers, who make up 85% of the audience, averaged 44 years old and subscription audiences averaged 70.

The Met withdrew $40 million from its endowment this season and currently has about $255 million, Gelb said, down from $309 million last July. The Met hired the Boston Consulting Group to examine cost reduction, ticketing and fundraising improvements.

“They and we estimate that over the next four seasons, as a result of their findings and recommendations, we will have a positive balance of between $30 and $40 million,” Gelb said. “There is no doubt that we are still climbing out of the pandemic hole, as are other opera companies.”

A revival of Julie Taymor’s production of Mozart’s 2004 “The Magic Flute,” performed in an abridged English version during the holiday season, led the 18 productions with 87% of available tickets sold. The Met will offer 17 performances of “Flute” next season, an increase of 13.

“We’ve built a very large audience base for this, especially parents and grandparents who bring their children, because as a family show it’s been kind of an operatic response to ‘The Nutcracker,’” Gelb said, referring to the popular New York City ballet. holiday presentation. “It fills the house with the audience of the future.”

Franco Zeffirelli’s 1987 staging of Puccini’s “Turandot” came in second with 82%, followed by a new staging of Bizet’s “Carmen” by British director Carrie Cracknell with 81%, the Met premiere of “X: The Life and Times of Malcolm” by Anthony Davis

Among other new productions, Verdi’s “La Forza del Destino” sold 71%, Daniel Catán’s “Florencia en el Amazonas” 68%, Jake Heggie’s “Dead Man Walking” 62% and John Adams’ “El Niño” 58%.

Revivals of Terence Blanchard’s “Fire Shut up in My Bones” sold 65% and Kevin Puts’ “The Hours” sold 61%. A revival of Verdi’s “Un Ballo in Maschera” had the lowest sales, with 56%.

“I am convinced that we are on the right track in terms of mixing performances between timeless classics and new works,” said Gelb. “It’s the only way the art form can move forward, and we have to experiment. Not everything will be as successful as we would like.”

The Met said it had 84,934 new ticket buyers, up from 75,930 in 2022-23, and about 25% of them saw one of the six contemporary operas — and about one in 10 of that group returned for another opera.

The Met released its tax form for the year ended July 31, which showed that music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin earned $1,307,583, an increase from $1,195,702 in the previous fiscal year, and Gelb earned $1,379,032, up from $1,094,327.

Revenue for the year ended July 31 last was $303.1 million, up from $281.6 million in 2022-23. Contributions and grants were relatively equal at $185.1 million.