23 August 2007

Last minute ticket sales are going well for next weekend's ninth Paphos Aphrodite Festival, featuring Giuseppe Verdi's third operatic success, Il Trovatore, at the medieval Paphos castle with the organisers saying that less tickets remain unsold compared to the same time last year.

Stella Siepi, the General Coordinator of the publicly-owned venture that includes local municipalities, the Paphos Chamber of Commerce and the hoteliers association as its main shareholders, told the Financial Mirror that all 7,500 tickets are expected to be sold this year, compared to some 1,000 that remained unsold last year.

"The good seats are going fast and with foreign sales accounting for about 45% of all, there are not many left," she said, adding that the biggest grouping of ticket holders are traditionally from Nicosia.

"As soon as they see the stage going up, people will come forward for last-minute sales, for which we have a number of tickets in reserve."

But Siepi does not want to sit on her laurels. Looking ahead and keeping a balance between good quality productions and sound finances is what is going to keep the Paphos opera afloat and on the international scene.

This year's production staged by the Abai State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre of Kazakhstan will cost the organisers about CYP 235,000 (EUR 402,000), significantly less than last year's production of Verdi's "Un Ballo in Maschera" by the famous State Academic Mariinsky Theatre of Russia.

However, the finances seem to be better as income from sponsors and ticket sales will help keep a healthy balance sheet, while a long-term debt owed to the Paphos Municipality for the purchase of the 2,500-capacity seating construction is nearing its end.