I'm on a brief tour of lakeside orchestras — Muti and the Chicago, Edo de Waart and the Milwaukee. I'll report in the New Yorker soon. This weekend I have a piece on the New York Times op-ed page, and coming on Monday is a long-brewing essay on the life and work of John Cage.
Footnote: If anyone is wondering about my assertion, in the Times piece, that going to the Met costs the same as going to see the Rolling Stones, my source is this 2006 article. The average ticket price for the Met's current season is $138; for the Stones in 2006, it was $136.63. (Barbara Streisand's average was $298.36.) Even more "elitist," in some ways, is NFL football. The average price for a non-premium ticket to the New England Patriots is $117.84; the premium ticket average is a whopping $566.67. And that figure does not include luxury suites. Worth reading is this recent Times piece on how New Jersey residents are still carrying $110 million in debt on the now defunct Giants Stadium. The new stadium cost $1.6 billion. Sure, more people care about football than they do about opera. But why should those who couldn't care less have to pay for it?
