# Is ballet less popular than opera?



## Albert7

I am genuinely curious whether people here think that ballet is less popular than opera?


----------



## Sloe

I think it is obvious that Ballet is less popular than opera. Look at the activity on the ballet forum and compare it with the opera forum and compare also the number of ballets staged with the number of operas staged.


----------



## Albert7

Sloe said:


> I think it is obvious that Ballet is less popular than opera. Look at the activity on the ballet forum and compare it with the opera forum and compare also the number of ballets staged with the number of operas staged.


I know for crowds The Nutcracker always draws in a huge crowd when I work those shifts at Ballet West. Can't compare it easily to the Utah Opera crowds however.


----------



## Lord Lance

Albert7 said:


> I know for crowds The Nutcracker always draws in a huge crowd when I work those shifts at Ballet West. Can't compare it easily to the Utah Opera crowds however.


I think The Nutcracker is a given in any scenario and one must exclude these "watched by everyone and their grandpa" works.


----------



## GreenMamba

I would have thought opera was way more popular, but click the link and scroll down for the table. Of course, this doesn't record how often people go. Maybe ballet has a lot of one-off visits to the Nutcracker or Swan Lake.

http://www.wqxr.org/#!/story/nea-report-arts-audiences-grow-more-diverse/


----------



## Albert7

That is what I figured out as much. I work for the ballet here in SLC and it seems like The Nutcracker and Swan Lake sold out quicker than the opera. However, I am looking for more hard figures than whatever my vague estimates can come up with.


----------



## StlukesguildOhio

It would seem ballet is far less popular with composers... and patrons. Off hand how many major ballets can you think of in comparison to operas?


----------



## Sloe

GreenMamba said:


> I would have thought opera was way more popular, but click the link and scroll down for the table. Of course, this doesn't record how often people go. Maybe ballet has a lot of one-off visits to the Nutcracker or Swan Lake.
> 
> http://www.wqxr.org/#!/story/nea-report-arts-audiences-grow-more-diverse/


I am more surprised that 8,1 % goes to see jazz.
That is one reason to wonder if the survey really is relevant.
We must also have preferences in different countries in perspective.


----------



## Pyotr

I believe that Opera has always been more popular than Ballet in the past, and as mentioned, except for the Nutcracker, it’s more popular today. Not that either of them get huge ratings anymore. Opera lacks that super Christmas show. Most opera fans would probably turn up their noses at a work like that.


----------



## Couac Addict

Not a big difference in attendances over here.

Paris Opera/Ballet stats. There are other opera and ballet companies but this is the big one.

Attendances:
Opera - 465000 from 20 productions... plus 104000 for cinema/open air broadcasts.
Ballet - 337000 from 12 productions ...plus 58000 from tour.


----------



## Ingélou

I imagine it's because Opera can provide more in-depth characterisation, in which audiences can become absorbed, and also songs that we can all sing at home. Ballet is more of a spectator sport. It's marginally easier for me to see opera, since Ellen Kent productions appear at our local theatre more often than ballet companies. I love both, but if asked to choose between seeing Madame Butterfly and Swan Lake - I have to admit, I'd go for Swan Lake. Butterfly is *too* painful & I prefer to be an observer.


----------



## dgee

Where I live the ballet puts on more shows than the opera and always has done. This totally stands to reason for me - ballets are easier to parse than the weird world of opera, they're generally shorter, the physicality is more immediately impressive and people take their kids to it. Many have also done or are doing ballet, so they identify with it more readily than opera.


----------



## TxllxT

Well, 'popular' is not the first thought I would associate either with ballet nor opera. But the existing repertoire of operas is much larger than that of ballets, so factually more people happen to have something with opera than with ballet. But personally, being a Prokofiev adept, I drown myself continually in Prokofiev's both his operas & ballets. Perhaps even more in his ballets... But than again there is his piano music begging for my ears, and his symphonies, violin concertos..............


----------



## papsrus

GreenMamba said:


> I would have thought opera was way more popular, but click the link and scroll down for the table. Of course, this doesn't record how often people go. Maybe ballet has a lot of one-off visits to the Nutcracker or Swan Lake.
> 
> http://www.wqxr.org/#!/story/nea-report-arts-audiences-grow-more-diverse/


It will be interesting to see if these trends hold over the next 5 years. The period for the survey was, as the article points out, a particularly rough one for household discretionary spending.

I'm going to be taking a ballet appreciation class beginning in June -- no tutu necessary. It's an art form I haven't delved into yet. Hopefully this class will open a few doors. Seems like beautiful bodies flying around to the sound of beautiful music is worth a shot. :lol:


----------



## Albert7

Based on the number of ballet tickets I sold this week, I couldn't complain about the lack of popularity of the ballet form .


----------



## Sonata

Lord Lance said:


> I think The Nutcracker is a given in any scenario and one must exclude these "watched by everyone and their grandpa" works.


Only if we were to exclude similarily popular works from the opera side; ie Boheme and Carmen.

In terms of general cultural events, when I was exposed in college and what's put on locally I would say ballet is more popular. But in terms of musical composition, it does seem that opera has had more popularity overall.


----------



## SixFootScowl

I really have no desire to watch ballet, but love to watch opera.


----------



## Antiquarian

I have watched a few ballet performances in my life, and I have thought deeply about this subject (or as deeply as a person of my decidedly mercurial temperament can), and come to this rather broad conclusion: Ballet has a stigma in the states, as being somewhat airy and gay. The _Nutcracker_ gets around this by being a seasonal entertainment, performed in large part by children. Parents take their daughters to watch it, to ostensibly broaden their cultural experience, and because it's one of those things one does at Christmas. I think this is unfortunate. In Europe this is less the case, and in Asia, Opera includes more dancing in their performances, a sort of Ballet / Opera fusion. It's a cultural thing, if America can still be said to have a culture.

The last Ballet I watched was actually on DVD. It was an adaptation of Sergei Prokoviev 's _Ivan the Terrible _by Yuri Grigorovich and Mikhail Chulaki performed by The Bolshoi Ballet at the Bolshoi Theatre in 1990. (ArtHaus Musik 101 107). The story is artfully conveyed by movement and gesture, and is open to all. No libretto is needed to follow the action, just an open mind.


----------



## Tsaraslondon

If you want to go from bums on seats, I'd say ballet is much more popular than opera. The Royal Ballet rarely plays to empty seats, even when performing modern works. The Royal Opera frequently does, especially when performing something outside the regular repertoire.


----------



## Sloe

GregMitchell said:


> If you want to go from bums on seats, I'd say ballet is much more popular than opera. The Royal Ballet rarely plays to empty seats, even when performing modern works. The Royal Opera frequently does, especially when performing something outside the regular repertoire.


How many performances have the royal ballet comparing to the royal opera? How many opera performances comparing to ballet performances are there in entirely in England?


----------



## k1hodgman

Not with me! Being 8 years old, in New York City, and going to see The Nutcracker (cliche I know) with my family...one of my fondest childhood memories. I've yet to see an Opera, though I'd like to.


----------



## Strange Magic

I agree that there continues to be a strong aversion in America to "classic" ballet, where you have men in tights. The Broadway musicals made it more acceptable to have men dancing in street clothes, cowboy outfits, sailor suits. And people like Michael Jackson and movies like Saturday Night Fever made male dancing even more mainstream. But men in tights on stage, for many, is too artsy-fartsy, too gay for many men to cope with even today. But ballet burst out of that bubble with the profusion of profoundly popular suites of ballet music that are played and heard everywhere. The Russians, the French, even the Americans like Gershwin, Copland, Bernstein have added enormously to ballet's empire, sneaking dance in by the back door, so to speak.


----------



## bestellen

I have absolutely no facts or statistics to cite, just my impressions. When I first started attending opera and ballet performances half a century ago, it seemed to me that the opera audience was older and conservative, the ballet audience younger and adventurous. Now the opposite appears to be the case. I'm thinking in particular of New York City Opera vs. New York City Ballet. Whenever I go to the former, the New York State Theater is filled and there's an air of excitement. (Despite all the NYCO complaints about the theater.) Too often at the ballet there are empty seats, and many of the people who are there seem to be attending out of duty or habit. Am I imagining this?


----------



## sharik

Strange Magic said:


> Gershwin, Copland, Bernstein have added enormously to ballet's empire, sneaking dance in by the back door


had already happened before, in Prokofiev's _The Stone Flower_ -











https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_the_Stone_Flower_(Prokofiev)


----------



## Classical Performances

There are many more opera companies than ballet companies. For instance, compare Massachusetts: http://www.classicalperformances.com/#!massachusetts/pr1i6

That being said, in my humble opinion, any major and important city should always have at least one ballet company.


----------



## Pugg

Classical Performances said:


> There are many more opera companies than ballet companies. For instance, compare Massachusetts: http://www.classicalperformances.com/#!massachusetts/pr1i6
> 
> That being said, in my humble opinion, any major and important city should always have at least one ballet company.


_Any city_ may be big words, lest say : one country at least :tiphat:


----------



## arnerich

It's true that opera has a very large and devoted fan base. But since dance is universal to every culture and it's language is universal, I think ballet's appeal is much much broader. I'd say if the world was polled ballet would win the popular vote.


----------

