Welsh National Opera?s (WNO) forthcoming move to the Wales Millennium Centre (WMC) in Cardiff Bay, its first ever home theatre, will enable the company to make significant reductions in its ticket prices.
WNO will open its first show at WMC in February next year, with the cheapest seats priced at just £5 and top price tickets £35, a cut of 25%. One third of all seats for each performance will be priced at £20 or less. WNO?s General Director, Anthony Freud, said, ?While the transformed home environment will enable WNO to improve artistically and technically, the increased capacity gives us the opportunity to make sure that our work reaches many thousands more people too.? The main auditorium at WMC will have a capacity of over 1,700 for each performance, a 68% increase on the New Theatre, Cardiff, where WNO currently performs. According to Freud the difference means ?we can cut our ticket prices while protecting and developing our income?. Geraint Talfan Davies, Chairman of the Arts Council of Wales, said, ?This is very good news. I hope and believe that this will open a new world of music... especially [for] young people. You don?t have to pass 40 before going to the opera.?
Published: 22-03-2004