P: Canadian Opera Company stays in the black despite falling attendance | The Star

array( '1.head' => 'Canadian Opera Company stays in the black despite falling attendance | The Star', '2.body' => array( '1.div' => 'Sign Out', '2.div' => array( '1.p' => 'This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to:', '2.article' => array( '1.div' => 'Canadian Opera Company stays in the black despite falling attendance', '2.div' => array( '1.div' => array( '1.div' => array( '1.span' => 'By', '2.span' => 'Special to the Star', ), '2.div' => 'Wed., Oct. 24, 2018', ), '2.div' => array( '1.div' => array( '1.p' => 'At its annual meeting on Wednesday, the Canadian Opera Company boasted of a small operating surplus and growing audiences for a variety of concerts and presentations outside its main stage at Toronto’s Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.', '2.p' => 'But the $6,000 surplus on a budget of $41.3-million masked continued declines in average attendance figures for its mainstage productions.', ), '2.div' => array( 1 => 'Sondra Radvanovsky as Anna Bolena in the Canadian Opera Company’s production of Anna Bolena from spring of 2018. During that fiscal year, the COC says, it managed a small surplus despite falling attendance.', '2.span' => array( 1 => '(', '2.span' => array( 1 => 'Michael Cooper coopershoots.com', '2.span' => '/', 3 => 'Michael Cooper photo', ), 3 => ')', ), ), '3.div' => array( '1.p' => 'According to the numbers released by the COC on Thursday, rising revenues from the bar, special events and the underground parking garage at the Four Seasons Centre have surpassed contributions from the box office. Last season, bar, special event and parking sales brought in $8.89 million.', '2.p' => 'The COC does not release comparative figures for previous years, but a look at past annual reports shows that box office revenues slipped from a high of $13.4 million for the 2009-10 season to $8.23 million for 2017-18. The number also represents a 13 per cent decline from 2016-17.', '3.p' => 'Several years ago, the company slashed one production per season, reducing the number of performances, which accounts for some of the loss in revenue. In 2009-10, the COC offered 70 mainstage performances. In 2017-18 there were 53.', ), '4.div' => 'Article Continued Below', '5.div' => array( '1.p' => 'However, the average attendance figures tell a clearer tale of decline. Last season, the average attendance at the Four Seasons Centre was 84 per cent of capacity. In 2009-10, the company was selling 97.6 per cent of its seats. As recently as 2015-16, the figure was 91 per cent.', '2.p' => 'Despite the declining ticket revenues, the COC is on a sound financial footing. Besides operating with what is essentially a balanced budget, the Canadian Opera Foundation has seen its endowment balance rise to $43 million. This is nearly double of what was in the bank at the end of 2008-10 — $22.4 million.', '3.p' => 'The company has been growing its community outreach initiatives, audiences at opera talks and at the free daytime concerts in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre have been on the rise. The COC also hosted Toronto’s upstart Against the Grain Theatre as its “company in residence.”', '4.p' => 'Seeing a future in more community-oriented, i.e. smaller-scale productions, the opera company has embarked on a project to use more of its administrative and rehearsal space at Front and Berkeley Sts. for public events.', '5.p' => '“We see the cultural landscape changing and it represents a tremendous opportunity for the COC to evolve with those changes, and our audiences,” said COC general director Alexander Neef in a press statement.', ), '6.div' => array( '1.p' => 'Opera, the hottest entertainment ticket in Toronto a decade ago, is not so hot anymore. And the COC is working hard to figure out what might reignite the flame. It’s either that or entice even more people to buy drinks and park underground.', '2.p' => 'Classical music writer John Terauds is a freelance contributor for the Star, based in Toronto. He is supported by the Rubin Institute for Music Criticism, San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation. Follow him on Twitter @JohnTerauds', ), '7.div' => 'Read more about:', '8.div' => array( '1.div' => 'READ THIS BEFORE YOU READ THAT. GET OUR BOOKS NEWSLETTER TO YOUR INBOX.', '2.div' => array( '1.span' => 'NEW NEWSLETTER', '2.span' => 'AUTHOR-ITY', ), ), ), ), ), '3.div' => 'More from The Star & Partners', '4.div' => 'LOADING', '5.p' => 'Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. 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