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The Paris Opera compared to three other opera houses in Europe and in North America

Here, for reference and comparison, are some figures relating to activities and the cost of artistic activities at the four opera houses.

Financial Information	Opéra National Paris	Metropolitan Opera New York	Staats Oper Vienna	Bayerische Oper Munich
Annual budget in millions of Euros / 2002	150	155	91	77
Direct revenue from activities	48	82	35	23
Percentage of funding from direct revenue	32%	53%	38%	30%

Paris and New York have comparable budgets.

The direct revenue is higher in New York because of the size of the auditorium (3700 seats instead of 2700 at Bastille and 1900 at Garnier), the number of lyrical performances, which is greater at the Metropolitan than in Paris, and the average ticket price, which is higher than in the other opera houses.

New York distinguishes itself from the European opera houses by a higher percentage of its funding coming from ticket sales, and also as practically all opera houses in North America, by the importance of private donations and endowments instead of public subsidies.

Average activities by season	Opéra National Paris	Metropolitan Opera New York	Staats Oper Vienna	Bayerische Oper Munich
Number of lyrical works	24	26	53	41
New lyrical productions	7	5	7	6
Number of lyrical performances	183	217	250	211
Number of ballets	161	76	50	73
Total number of performances	344	293	300	284

The number of works performed by season and the number of performances of each work clearly distinguish Paris and New York, who have an alternating repertoire, from Vienna and Munich, which maintain one single repertoire.

The number of new productions is more or less the same in the four theatres.

The number of lyrical performances is lower in Paris than in the other theatres

However the number of ballets is noticeably higher

The Paris Opera does not take full advantage of its two auditoriums by offering double the number of performances as the other theatres which only have one auditorium.

Spectator information	Opéra National Paris	Metropolitan Opera New York	Staats Oper Vienna	Bayerische Oper Munich
Number of spectators	710.000	1.015.000	594.000	568.000
Average ticket price in Euros / 2002
lyrical performance	62	89	48	44
Ballet	35	28	33	25
Total annual cost in millions of Euros	142	158	78	77
Cost per performance in millions of Euros	389	498*	259	228
Complete cost per seat sold in Euros	196	162	156	134

* At the Metropolitan, the average cost per performance is €643,000 for a lyrical performance and €97,000 for a ballet

The differences in the number of spectators is explained by the number of performances and the size of the auditorium.

The Paris Opera charges average prices for lyrical performances and slightly higher than average prices for ballets.

The total annual costs, not including investments, are almost twice as high in Paris than in Vienna and Munich although the number of performances is only 15% higher.

The average cost per performance in Paris is high, even though the greater proportion of ballets in France than in the other countries should lead to lower average costs.

These facts explain the why the total cost per seat sold is higher at the Paris Opera than at the other opera houses.