Here is a subject irrelevant to most, but the comparative cost of tickets to Sydney Opera is out of all whack on a global scale!

Who scoops the pool?

Cheap tickets to Palma Faith are $128 and or $168 plus $8 booking fee.

People with lots of dollars spare for quality seats pay $300.

Opera in New York US$40, and in Europe (London) €35.

Are we ripped off in Au. Or what other factor would account for this disparity?

My guess would be Dan, that like so many things in Oz, there are a hell of a lot more arts bureaucrats & hangers on to be supported per performance, than in other places.

This of course made worse that we built an "iconic" opera house that can't accommodate a enough audience to come near producing a profitable income per performance.

I could be wrong but I recall the Opera house was heavily subsidized by taxpayers.

If so we got screwed to build it and to use it.

I would also say it is a very small percentage of the public that would even go to an event help there.

Well I recently paid $400 per seat to see Paul McCartney in Sydney, so these tickets seem cheap.

Then again $400 to see the greatest musician of all time and one of the great concerts of all time, seems like a bargain.

I wonder what the cost of a box seat was at the Colosseum in Rome when the Christians and Lions were featured

Apparently in the 1950s and 1960s - Australians were
becoming more and more aware of the fact that
Australia was considered a cultural 'backwater.'
For the best in the arts one had to go overseas.
However, it happened that during the following years
many plans were made to put an end to this state of
affairs.

The Australian Opera House (the first in Australia)
was built in Sydney. Apparently the architectural
design made world headlines, and despite the cost
(lottery run) and complications in building, it
has become one of the foremost cultural attractions
of Australia.

In Melbourne the Victorian Art Gallery was planned as
the 'art gallery wonder' of Australia. The Gallery was to
become a spectacular architectural attraction with its
watershielded glass front, its spectacular stained glass
ceiling, and much, much more. The art purchases have
become matters of public debate, and with the increased
interest, more and more people have been getting experience
of art than perhaps ever before.

The overseas fame of Australian individual performers, writers,
musicians and performers in all the arts, has earned Australia a
place amongst the world's best.

In sport, Australians have long excelled.

The prices of tickets to events may have gone up - however,
many people are more than willing to pay these prices as they
realise the costs involved today to put on quality performances
with leading performers. At least in today's Australia we have
the choice on offer of - 'to go or not to go,' to a
performance. And, no longer will most of the world think of
Australia as a place where 'kangaroos hop around the streets'
and where 'down under' is a term label for 'backwardness.'