If you want a fright at the opera, you only have to look at the ticket prices. As I discovered, to my profound dismay, when I was told front-row seats for Puccini’s Turandot at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden cost £235.
Which rather underscores what thespian Derek Jacobi was complaining about last week when he said theatre should be open to all and part of ‘our blood and bones’.
You can just hear 84-year-old Jacobi’s rich intonation as he makes his plea, can’t you? He was shocked to learn of sky-high West End prices, and said that their exorbitance is making theatre-going an ‘elitist’ pursuit.
Few would disagree. Still, if you want to see world-class opera there are other options, as I found out.
Opera North’s revival of Edward Dick’s acclaimed 2018 production of Tosca at Hull New Theatre earned five-star reviews – and rightly so. I’m an opera fan and have seen Tosca many times, including once at the Royal Opera House, but this was easily the most magnificent yet.
Mykhailo Malafii as Cavaradossi and Giselle Allen as Tosca in Puccini’s Turandot at the Royal Opera House
Opera fan Stephanie Hawthorne (pictured) was devastated when told front-row seats for Puccini’s Turandot at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden cost £235
I went with my brother and we had the best seats in the house – a bargain at £43.50 a ticket. In fact, our entire weekend in Hull including the two tickets, return train fares from London, two nights in a hotel (with an excellent freshly cooked breakfast) and a visit to a top tourist attraction, came to less than the £470 cost of the two Royal Opera House tickets.
I’m sure the good folk who saw Turandot, Puccini’s final opera, had a marvellous evening. But I doubt it surpassed mine. No wonder the arts critic of The Times called Opera North’s Tosca ‘a corker of a show’.
Certainly everything exceeded my expectations: from the beautiful set to the orchestra to the performances.
Giselle Allen, in the lead role as the celebrated singer who is in love with artist Cavaradossi, played by Ukrainian tenor Mykhailo Malafii in his Opera North debut, were both excellent.
I’d arrived in Hull the day before. Often disparaged as Britain’s least glamorous city, it has long struggled with an image problem. One of its most famous sons, the poet Philip Larkin, wrote: ‘I wish I could think of one nice thing I could tell you about Hull, oh yes … it’s very nice and flat for cycling.’
As my train pulled into the station, I reflected that these days the criticism is undeserved. There is a sparkling marina, green spaces, a patchwork of cobbled lanes, great bars and restaurants. But it is in the arts where the renaissance is most evident.
Hull was named UK City of Culture 2017. That year, the director of the Royal Ballet said that the city not only punched above its weight for its ability to produce male ballet stars, but may generate the most per head of any British city.
I stayed at the family-run Victorian Kingston Theatre Hotel in a garden square opposite the theatre. Staff were friendly and the service excellent. A double room with ensuite and a full English breakfast was £194 for two nights.
Stephanie stayed at the family-run Victorian Kingston Theatre Hotel in a garden square opposite the theatre
Hull is such a friendly place. Poor parts of the city remain but it is on the up with re-energised docks and lots of museums. The train service is excellent. There are 16 direct trains to London every day and an average journey time of two hours, 51 minutes. My return ticket cost £62.35, bought with a senior railcard and booked in advance. The total cost then for two for two days in Hull to see the opera: £443.20.
And it even included tickets for The Deep, the city’s biggest attraction, an aquarium focusing on conservation as well as entertainment.
The Royal Opera House defends its pricing, saying: ‘We have consistently been named the cheapest theatre ticket in the West End, with tickets this season starting at just £4, and have been able to maintain almost 40 per cent of our tickets at £50 or less, despite rising costs.
‘Our Young ROH scheme has seen us sell more than 80,000 discounted tickets to those aged 16 to 25 since August last year, and 14,400 discounted tickets have been bought through our #ThankYouNHS scheme since June 2021, with tickets costing as little as £1 for NHS staff and their families.’