Found while carving through a mountain of research into arts funding in the UK – and while trying to put together a picture of the kind of theatre companies who lost out in the recent cull – here’s a snapshot of how money was distributed at the end of the 90s. Of the funding given to music by the Arts Council of England, about 80% went to opera; opera tickets were subidised per ticket to the tune of £12.07 in 1995/6, rising to £12.75 in 1999/2000.
For context, jazz – which has a rougly comparable audience size – was subsidised per ticket at 15p in 95/6, rising to an enormous 27p in 97/8, before settling at 25p in 99/00. Those figures are taken from a report produced for Jazz Services, an organisation funded by the Arts Council of England to promote the growth and development of jazz within the UK. Yes, the irony is evident.