Balancing Old and New in the Opera Experience

There may be no quick fix or universal solution to the age-old effort of building new audiences for the performing arts. However, many arts organizations are finding success by listening to their communities. Opera companies in particular are harnessing community conversations to bring in first-time attendees.

OPERA America, a resource and service organization for the opera community, noticed a surprising trend across recent seasons: Opera companies and theaters around the country were reporting record levels of first-time attendees. So, they dug deeper. Partnering with Slover Linett at National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, OPERA America sought to understand people’s perceptions of the opera, barriers to attendance, and what ultimately might draw an audience in and keep them coming back.

Their study, Understanding Opera’s New Audiences, draws on a survey of over 11,000 operagoers between 2020 and 2024 across 36 opera companies of varying sizes, programming, and localities. To help readers and performing arts professionals understand the report’s findings and implement strategies to turn new operagoers into company regulars, OPERA America has released an accompanying resource guide, Engaging Opera’s New Audiences: Turning Research into Action. The guide features insights, examples, and case studies from the field and offers ideas to enhance performance experiences, while encouraging first-time attendees to return. 

“One of the biggest motivators that we saw come out of the research was newcomers’ desire to have ‘the opera experience,’ and the way we read that is the idea of checking off a bucket list item,” says Dan Cooperman, OPERA America’s chief advancement officer. “This means living up to that preconceived notion of what going to the opera is, which is more than just the musical experience; it’s what happens before the show, after the show, what you're wearing, and how the night plays out.”

Companies can facilitate the opera experience by scheduling performances to better accommodate dinner times, expanding food and beverage services at the theater, offering behind-the-stage access, and planning social events before or after the show. These additional offerings contribute to a visitor’s special night at the opera, but companies may be unsure whether it’s enough to spark that initial interest among new audiences.  

“The biggest barrier that came through in the responses was pricing, and I don't think there's any surprise in that. You can go back to pretty much any study of the past 50 years and pricing will come up as a barrier,” says Cooperman. “One nuance to this that came through in the research, though, is that people are willing to pay the price of admission for their first time for this bucket list item.”

Adjusting marketing and hospitality strategies to address the motives of new attendees can help fill seats for one bucket list show, but what might keep audiences from returning?

In response to the report, the Florentine Opera in Milwaukee is considering piloting a special program designed to welcome solo attendees looking to take part in the opera experience and connect with others. The company had previously been exploring how to ensure that longtime patrons who had lost a spouse or companion continued to feel welcome while attending alone–this exploration led to deeper findings.

“We noticed a consistent theme in open-ended feedback—many patrons loved their experience but cited the lack of a companion as a reason they hadn’t returned,” says Morgan Sass, director of marketing at the Florentine Opera. “Some shared that they’d convinced their husband to come once but couldn’t persuade him to come again; others said their friends weren’t interested in opera. It became clear that social barriers were preventing some from becoming regular attendees, and addressing that felt like a natural next step."

Paying the bucket list price a second or third time, however, can be a tough sell to newer audiences. Informed by research into its own subscriber retention, the San Francisco Opera is encouraging single-ticket buyer loyalty by extending discounts using what they call a “magic of threes” approach. Here, the discount for first-time ticket buyers is steep, then the next two ticket purchases are discounted at progressively lower rates. 

Troy Smith, chief marketing officer at the San Francisco Opera, explained further that renewal rates improve each year over the course of three years before leveling off and becoming steady, as they have observed from over two decades of subscriber renewal data. For example, about 40 percent of first-year subscribers renew each year. For that same group of subscribers, 60 percent of them will renew a second time. By year three of a subscription and beyond, the rate of renewal increases to 80 percent and stabilizes at around that same percentage year over year. 

“The question we asked,” Smith says, “was whether this ‘magic of threes’ concept could transfer to single-ticket buyer behavior. In other words, would a new single-ticket buyer’s return rate improve each year before stabilizing in year four and beyond with the proper discounting strategy?”

Since testing this strategy, the San Francisco Opera has seen the amount of new ticket buyers increase by 5 percent to 10 percent over the past three seasons, and was able to increase the return rate from 7 percent to 9 percent in the first year and up to 12 percent in the second year.

Beyond the price of tickets, survey respondents also reported feeling somewhat disoriented by  opera, due to the length of the program, the foreign language, or the plot. Providing program summaries and clearly communicating what visitors can expect ahead of the performance is recommended as a baseline, but the report shows that it’s important for organizations to stay attuned to the unique needs of their community and to adjust strategies accordingly to meet audiences where they're at. Some ideas from OPERA America’s accompanying resource guide suggest partnering with a local modern museum if a company is presenting new works, moving performances to a park, or activating the lobby in a new way.

Cooperman says that many opera companies shortened performance lengths during the pandemic, which audiences and companies both preferred at the time. Overall, performances have gradually returned to full length, but Cooperman sees opportunities for integrating shorter performances into a season–or even earlier show times–to help meet both audience and company needs. One Austrian festival in Bregenz, he says, brings in more audience members than the town can house, and therefore keeps their outdoor performances to under two hours to ensure that 7,000 people can catch the last outbound train at midnight. 

Whether it's shortening a performance, offering accessible price points, or organizing group outings, opera companies have found success in balancing innovation while maintaining the traditions that make opera a unique experience. As OPERA America found in its study, when arts organizations are looking to reach new audiences and strengthen relationships with existing supporters, one of the most effective approaches is to listen to the needs and desires of their communities and respond to them.This is an echo of recent research in audience building. 

“The goal,” says the Florentine Opera’s Sass, “is to give everyone agency to shape their experience while ensuring that every visitor feels genuinely welcomed and valued as part of our opera community.”

OPERA America is one of Wallace’s communications partners, service organizations that help build awareness and deepen engagement with their members by sharing Wallace-commissioned research and tools and encouraging dialogue.