New French Opera Boss Pledges Cut-Price Tickets

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La Scala boss Stephane Lissner has promised to cut ticket prices and take major productions to the provinces when he takes over the Paris National Opera in 2015.

Lissner said he wanted to open up opera to new audiences by using patronage funds to make tickets more affordable.

"For example we can try something I've done in Milan, putting on previews for the under-30s only with the tickets at 10 euros each," Lissner told France Inter radio.

Lissner also argued that more operas should be staged outside Paris.

"There are a number of towns and cities which have beautiful theaters but can't put on productions because of budgetary constraints, so I think it is our duty to take them to them."

Lissner was named as the next boss of Paris National Opera in October.

He will succeed current director Nicolas Joel at the helm of the umbrella organisation that runs both the French capital's operas: the Garnier Palace, inaugurated in 1875, and the Bastille opera that opened in 1989.

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