The Well-Tempered Ear
Do local arts presenters discriminate against single people? Is it unethical or illegal?
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By Jacob Stockinger
The start of selling single tickets — rather than season subscriptions, which have been on sale since the spring — is coming up.
The Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra starts selling them on this coming Monday, July 31, and the Madison Symphony Orchestra starts on Saturday, Aug. 19, both through the Overture Center box office (below), which will also start selling single tickets to Overture Presents events this Friday, July 28. The Madison Opera starts selling single tickets in September.
Do the Madison Symphony Orchestra and other arts presenters discriminate against single people when it comes to selling single or subscription tickets? And if they do, is it legal or illegal?
It may sound paradoxical, but the question is especially relevant because of demographics — specifically, the increasing number of single seniors and the growing trend among young people to stay single and marry later. And it certainly violates the principles of equity and equality. It also seems to violate good fiscal sense and the financial well-being of a business that is usually first-come, first served. Plus seating at a concert would seem a form of legally protected public accommodation.
A CASE STUDY
A veteran concert-goer and reader of this blog recalls the following incident from last spring:
“I spontaneously decided I might go to the Madison Symphony Orchestra concert with “Carmina Burana’ and Florence Price (Symphony No. 3).
“I went to the website and saw a seat, one of a pair, in the orchestra section of Overture that looked good for $98. Plus, there was a $15 service fee.
“But when I selected that, I was told by the computer that it wasn’t for sale because it would leave the seat next to it empty.
“In other words, the MSO is doing so well that they can reject somebody buying a single ticket because they want to save the two tickets for a couple. So I just decided fuck it.
“It left me feeling that if I couldn’t easily buy the seat I wanted, why bother. There were other less ideal seats available.”
And so a $103 seat was lost to MSO’s revenue.
IS THE OVERTURE CENTER RESPONSIBLE?
To be fair, it might not be only the Madison Symphony Orchestra that is guilty of the practice.
The Ear heard from another reader who said a theater group in the Overture Center did the same thing. The reader could not remember details.
So it makes one curious to know if other resident groups in Overture — the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, the Madison Opera, Forward Theater, Children’s Theater of Madison, the Madison Ballet, Kanopy Dance and Li Chiao Ping Dance — do the same thing.
If so, then perhaps it is a policy of the Overture Center’s box office and the algorithm that its computer uses for selling tickets.
But that just shifts the discrimination, not corrects or prevents it.
SINGLISM
The practice of discriminating against single people — which may not be illegal but certainly seems unethical — has even been given a name: singlism.
Singlism can be compared to racism, sexism and ageism, to discrimination based on religion and sexual orientation or gender identity. But single people are not legally protected classes under federal law and in many states.
Here is a definition:
https://www.multiamory.com/podcast/355-singlism-and-the-truth-about-being-single
I think Overture and all its resident groups receive public funds from the Wisconsin Arts Board, Dane Arts (formerly Dane County Arts Commission) and the Madison Arts Commission.
It seems logical, then, to The Ear that some investigation by the city, county and state — perhaps the various Offices of Equal Opportunity — is in order and that some correction should be implemented immediately, given the upcoming sale of single tickets to single persons. At the very least, political leaders and government lawyers should weigh in on the ethics and legality of the issue.
Have you ever experienced similar discrimination?
Are you aware of others who have?
What do you think of the practice of refusing to sell certain tickets to a single person?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: A reader urges others to donate ticket refunds to support the arts. What do you think?
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ALERT: The Wisconsin Chamber Choir has canceled its upcoming concert, “Music She Wrote,” on April 18.
By Jacob Stockinger
A reader — who prefers to remain anonymous but who has been deeply involved in the Madison arts scene for a long time — recently wrote:
“I’d like to suggest an angle for your column: Encourage subscribers to the various arts organizations and single ticket holders who can afford it NOT to ask for a refund on their upcoming cancelled concerts, if or when they are offered that option.
“I subscribe — on my own or as part of others’ subscriptions — to the Madison Symphony Orchestra (below, in photo by Peter Rodgers), the Madison Opera, the Broadway musicals at the Overture Center, Forward Theater, and the Wisconsin Union Theater’s Concert series. (I also buy a lot of single tickets to chamber music concerts by the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society and to American Players Theatre in Spring Green.)
“As all those arts organizations cancel their concerts and plays, they still have costs. Forward Theater, for instance, is paying the full contract of all the people who were involved with the production of “The Amateurs.” And I’m glad they are.
“Personally, I will not be asking for a refund on any of the tickets I long ago purchased. I want the arts to stay healthy in Madison, and not asking for a refund is a small gesture in trying to make sure they are able to move forward.” (At bottom is the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, which just announced its summer schedule from June 7 to June 28 and has not cancelled anything. Go to: https://bachdancing.org)
“You reach a lot of people and you could plant a lot of powerful seeds by making this the topic of a column.”
If you are a member of a performing arts group, what do you think?
If you are a ticket holder, what do you think?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: We should hear more operas sung in English translation – like Wisconsin Public Radio’s live broadcast TODAY at noon of the Metropolitan Opera’s shortened version of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute”
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear thinks that we in English-speaking countries should hear more operas sung in our native language.
Yes, sung in English – not the original Italian, French or German.
You can see how you’d like it for yourself if you listen at noon TODAY– Saturday, Dec. 29 — to Wisconsin Public Radio. That’s when you can hear the Metropolitan Opera’s live broadcast of its family-friendly production of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute.”
The Ear did so and – except for deleting the wonderful overture — loved it.
So, apparently, did a lot others. (You can hear Nathan Gunn in a sample in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
After many years, the production has now become a holiday tradition for the Met to offer children while school is out for the holidays.
And one suspects it is developing new audiences – especially with the colorful staging and costumes by Julie Taymor, who won such acclaim for her staging of “The Lion King” on both the stage and film.
Sure, a lot of purists will probably object to substituting English for the original Italian, French, German and Russian. But it is so freeing and feels so good to understand what you are hearing without the distraction of constantly going back and forth trying to look at both the supertitles and the stage.
It also seems worth a try, given the problems that many opera companies are having competing with the “Live from the Met in HD” productions that you can see in movie theaters for far less money, and the decline of both season subscribers and single tickets.
To be honest, of course even in English you will miss some of the words. That’s the nature of singing. But excellent diction helps. And if you are lucky enough to see the production in person, supertitles in Italian, French German and Spanish and, yes, English are still provided.
It is not a completely new idea. After all, Great Britain has the English National Opera, which performs standard operas by Verdi and Puccini, Monteverdi and Handel, Mozart and Wagner, in English. So, many of the very great operas have already been translated into English and could be staged in English elsewhere.
Here are links where you can learn more about the English National Opera:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_National_Opera
Do you question how the text is hurt in translation?
It’s worth remembering that Mozart himself used the vernacular German instead of his usual opera house Italian so that he would reach the general public. Why not do the same today? Translation could make opera much more accessible, less pretentious and more populist.
The same is true for cutting the show down to 100 minutes from almost 3 hours. Let’s just admit that the attention span of the general public is much shorter than it used to be.
Orchestra and chamber music concerts as well as solo recitals are trimming their running times often down to 90 minutes or less, and meet with great approval from the public. Why not try the same approach with opera? Indeed, both the Madison Opera and the University Opera have limited but successful experiences with editing operas and using English.
It is also worth recalling that in translation we read greater words than an opera libretto. If we can translate Homer and Shakespeare, Dostoevsky and Proust, why can’t we translate opera librettos? One just has to be sure to find a great translator with a sensitive musical ear– such as American poet Richard Wilbur is with his award-winning, rhyming translations of Moliere’s comedies and Racine’s tragedies. Similarly, American poet J.D. McClatchy has done a fine job with The Met’s “Magic Flute.”
Here is a link to more information about the production, including a synopsis:
https://www.metopera.org/season/2018-19-season/the-magic-flute/
And here is a review of the Met’s “Magic Flute” by Tommasini:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/20/arts/music/review-mozart-magic-flute-met-opera.html
What do you think?
Should more operas be staged in English?
Should long operas be edited?
Why or why not?
The Ear wants to hear.
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