Opera Philadelphia to Offer $11 Tickets for All its Performances

The new Pick Your Price scheme offers all tickets to all performances at the $11 starting price

Opera Philadelphia has launched a revolutionary new pricing system that will see tickets for all of their shows costing just $11. Titled Pick Your Price, the ticket program aims to make a trip to the opera financially viable for everyone.

The initiative is the brainchild of Opera Philadelphia's new General Director, countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo. In the first ten weeks of his tenure, Costanzo raised more than $7 million in gifts and pledges, which has made Pick Your Price possible.

All seats at all performances will be available at the $11 price point, but Costanzo is encouraging those who can afford to pay more to continue doing so — thus enabling accessibility for others. The standard prices are still available on an opt-in basis, and subscription packages will still be available, offering subscribers first access to seats.

Pick Your Price has already launched, and $11 tickets can be purchased for all three operas in the 2024/25 seasons: Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s The Listeners (Sept. 25, 27, & 29, 2024), Joseph Bologne’s The Anonymous Lover (Jan. 31 & Feb. 2, 2025), and Mozart’s Don Giovanni (April 25 & 27, May 2 & 4, 2025).

You can learn more about the scheme here.

“Price can be a big barrier to entry at the opera, and ticket sales are a metric that too often determines how we program, how we engage, and how we market," Costanzo said. "If we are worried about making sure we sell expensive tickets, it limits the possibility of who we reach and what we make."

"Pick Your Price invites everyone to connect with Opera Philadelphia at a price that works for them," he continued. "We hope it encourages audiences to take a risk and try something new, allows parents to bring their children more easily, and spurs opera lovers to come to more performances. It makes the cost of a night out to dinner and a show more manageable."

"Ultimately, our goal is to bring opera to more people and bring more people to the opera."