Ankara State Opera and Ballet audience figures on the up

The opera stage of ADOB has long hosted concerts and recitals. This season it aims to host more than four performances.

The Ankara State Opera and Ballet (ADOB) has increased its audience figures during its 2012-2013 season, reaching thousands more people thanks to a diverse range of works.

“ADOB has staged very famous works including Verdi’s ‘Rigoletto’ and Kakhidze’s ‘Amazons.’ The first season of the concerts attracted large audiences to the halls,” ADOB manager and art director Aykut Çınar told Anatolia news agency.

“ADOB has already planned which plays and concerts will be performed next,” Çınar said. “With our new team, the program of ADOB has been extended to incorporate new plays and performances aimed at children.”

Noting the success of the ADOB performances this season so far, Çınar said, “When compared to the last year, the audience numbers have increased by up to 6,000 people.” This increase has occurred despite no new additions being made the number of performances.

“We are not experiencing any problems attracting audiences, but these latest figures are very important for us,” he said, adding that this figure did not include open-air concerts. 

“If we consider the open-air concerts as well, the audience number increases to 20,000,” he said. “This season ADOB has staged 60 different works and there have been 123 performances, excluding the tours. When this season ends ADOB will have hosted a total 212 performances.”

Extending performances

Noting that ADOB’s repertoire is very broad, Çınar also mentioned the importance of the temporary and permanent stages. “When the government is establishing the institutions, it does not intend for the performances to take place solely on the permanent stages. The aim is also extend the performances to other stages.”

According to Çınar, the aim of the institution should be to reach the public with the performances and to serve the public. ”We aim to carry the performances to those who cannot come to us,” he added.
Considering this to be a duty of ADOB, Çınar said: “We want to go out to the public and present art to them. The best setting for presenting this kind of art is the halls and the stages, because the technical possibilities are high. We aim to attract audiences here but especially during the summer months we need to go beyond these.”

Çınar also said the number of plays aimed at children at permanent stages, as well as the number of musicals, had increased.

“We are excited about the next season. We have started to discuss the program, and after we finish our preparations, General Manager Rengim Gökmen will examine and approve it. Once he approves, we will begin. The choice of program is very important for an artistic institution,” said Çınar.

Searching for a new venue

The opera stage of ADOB has long hosted concerts and recitals. This season, ADOB hopes to host more than four productions on the stage. 

In the context of current venue planning for the concerts, Çınar said they also intended to organize operas and plays aimed at children, and other opera productions, on the Leyla Gencer stage.
The aim is to allow more artists to perform, he said. “We want to see even larger audiences during the second season of the year. We premiered, for example, Muammer Sun’s ‘Sevginin Bedeli’ [The Price of Love], composed a very long time ago. We think this is a very significant new play that will attract large audiences.”

This season ADOB will host one of the most important dancers of all time, Irek Mukhammedov on stage. “We predict that with these events, the ticket audience of ADOB will reach an audience numbering 10,000.”