While anti-capitalists were plotting to occupy Amsterdam's Beursplein this week - if you can at least put the protesters under that heading - in the US, anger over THE 99 PERCENT themselves to the concert hall.
The discussion flared up following two events. Wall Street was occupied; and the Metropolitan Opera received $182 million in one year in donations, a record amount.
It was oil on the fire.
A few racy comments found their way onto The New York Times website. "At least some of those sickening Wall Street bonuses are going to good use," and "Sounds like at least a few folks can afford to pay more taxes."
Opera and symphony stand justified as accomplices in the crimes committed by the 1% against the 99%, the 'ordinary American man'. The music itself, of course, is just sound but in its image, it is an art form for the rich alone.
This is also a not unknown phenomenon in the Netherlands, as we have seen over the past year in the culture policy of the incumbent cabinet. Only the Netherlands calls the 99% Henk and Ingrid and the wrath is not directed at donations but at subsidies.
It is therefore a tad surprising that those who demonstrated in June against the arts cuts today largely match those who are now protesting against the 1%. Where are Henk and Ingrid now?
US radio station NPR music polled its listeners asking: is opera only for the rich? The responses kicked in a number of open doors.
First of all, you don't have to leave opera for the admission prices. The Met charges between $15 and $330 for their seats. Good, we already knew that. Second, an opera ticket is just as pricey as a ticket to other events or activities. An example: how much does a day at Disney World cost, or a Madonna pop concert? It is a matter of priority and of appreciation. What you consider valuable you want to buy. Also plausible.
But then a more sensible answer follows. Opera as a musical form is portrayed, especially in popular visual culture - a very strong influencer - as the bastion of the older, rich, white man (and his wife). In how many films is the rich, spoilt opera lover not alienated from the world, and in need of a lesson?
But the real, contemporary opera lover does not conform to the stereotype; they are also real people. In jogging suits.
The wrath of the common man, in America as well as in the Netherlands, is directed at exactly this manufactured stereotype. It is now remarkable that on the same day that NPS music posed its question to listeners, the US consultant Adrian Slywotzky published an article On the results of a survey on audience groups of symphony orchestras.
Slywotzky fights the myth of the 'average ticket buyer'. This is the one who, in marketing charts, is the season ticket holder. A successful audience group in short: they keep coming back. One report reports that orchestras lose 55% of their subscription holders every year, but also 91% of single ticket buyers. The key is to get the latter group to come back.
Another report showed that the complete concert experience is more important than the quality of the orchestra, and that this experience is quite different for each audience group. Salient detail: subscription holders knew how to get a good parking spot, single ticket buyers drove around for hours in a stressful search.
A parking space.
So it can be that simple to belong to the 1%.
Now we need a plan of action to reverse the pejorative image of the classical music lover. Then perhaps new audiences will naturally emerge who don't mind paying €250 for a concert.
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