The Opera di Roma closes a record year for spectators and revenues

The strongest fact, which gives us pause for thought and reassures us for the years to come, is the consolidation of growth over time: looking at the last ten years, from 2014 to 2024, what emerges is a picture of 'stable recovery', which is therefore not the result of a favourable economic situation, but the result of many small factors put into place over the years.

"Starting with the Bray law of 2014, for the reorganisation of the opera foundations, which has done its job," observes Francesco Giambrone, superintendent of the Rome Opera, "for ten years the theatre has been closing its budget in the black and, thanks to the further increase in the last two years, we have achieved results never recorded in the previous decade. And then there are the strategic choices made by the theatre, which has progressively opened up to the city, through projects to spread opera culture throughout the territory, even to the suburbs, and which has invested in expanding its traditional audience, with entrance formulas dedicated to young people under 35 (who now represent over 30% of the total audience), activities for children, and promotional initiatives to intercept the many tourists who visit the capital every year.

Therefore, not only has the Roman opera house recovered after the heavy blow inflicted by the pandemic on the entire sector, but it is also preparing to close a 2024 with record results in terms of the number of spectators and hall occupancy rates, box office receipts and sources of self-financing (including private contributions), young audiences, tourist audiences and subscriptions.

"We therefore see a positive situation both in the expanded view on the historical series of results and in the narrower look at the last two years, and this gives us great satisfaction," Giambrone adds. In detail, with an estimated 278,000 spectators (against 256,000 in 2023), this year the Opera di Roma will surpass the record set in 2019 (265,700), after having hit lows in 2020 and 2021 (around 68,000 and 66,000). Ticketing revenues exceed 14.3 million euro this year, compared to 12.1 last year and - again - marking a new all-time high after that of 2019 (13.7 million). The sources of self-financing (which in addition to takings also include contributions from private individuals, which rose from 1.1 million in 2014 to 2.9 million in 2023, and income from other activities) increased from 11.4 million ten years ago to 19.6 million in 2023.

But 'the number of numbers', according to Giambrone, is the hall fill rate, which rose from 83.3% in 2023 to 90% in 2024, with peaks of 100% for operas such as The Magic Flute. "It is not an easy percentage to reach, especially in the case of less famous and non-repertory titles, such as Händel's Giulio Cesare, which recorded a rate of 95%, or Richard Strauss's Salome, with 96%, two shows proposed in the vision of avant-garde directors such as Damiano Michieletto and Barrie Kosky". Also striking is the 87% achieved by Britten's Peter Grimes: "The season that is coming to a close, as well as the one that will open next 27 November, embraces music from the baroque to the contemporary - says Giambrone -. Furthermore, we invest a lot in the quality of the programming, focusing on productions of great impact both musically and in terms of direction, and I believe that this is one of the factors that has allowed us to increase the number of spectators and also intercept new audiences'.