Reaction to the show
Using professional reviews gathered, Vox pops, the feedback tables and sections of results from the audience survey; this page gives you a summary of the reaction that audiences had, including specifically the reaction of the who groups the evaluation focuses on, regular opera goers and non-regular opera goers.
Professional Reviews and Write ups
#Echochamber attracted reviewers from a number of sources and received press coverage from a number of publications. The reviews and write ups about #Echochamber were very positive and generally lead with how innovative the use of twitter and digital interaction with in the show is. Other aspects covered the strength of the storylines and how LGBT+ themes are portrayed in complex and sensitive ways rather than usual simplistic narratives of these groups.
2 minutes of audience reactions
Likelihood to recommend 'The Aequitas Collective' to a Friend or Colleauge
In the audience survey, audience members were asked " how likely would they recommend 'The Aequitas Collective' to a friend or colleague based on their experience of seeing #Echochamber. These answers generated a Net Promoter Score, which gives an indication as to how likely someone is to promote the product or organisation they had an experience with.
Overall NPS Score
Reaction to the show is positive overall with over 1/3 of audience members being likely to have actively gone away to recommend both 'The Aequitas Collective' and #Echochamber to a friend or colleague. 1/2 the audience would have been passive or neutral advocates, that is to say they would give positive and qualified recommendations when asked. Only 12% are likely to be actively negative about the show and company.
You will notice below that both the non-regular and regular opera groups have NPS just above the overall. This can be explained in that there is a third group of people who either didn't answer the question or saw opera once a year which were more likely to be neutral /passive promoters (7 or 8) which are included in the over all figure but not the two main groups we are exploring.
The best thing about the event and my expectations
Respondents were invited to leave open text about the best thing about the show and their expectations in relation to it. These factors will play strongly in the overall NPS score. Different factors seem to be important to different groups. With non-opera goers valuing the overall experience and how the work impacted on them emotionally at the end; where as regular opera goers were more likely to value the music and performances more highly with in the overall experience.
A commonality is the overall experience appears to be important to both groups. Many of the comments relate to the whole evening being a positive experience - which feeds in to what we discovered about the audience on the previous page. The post show discussion came up as being a positive and unexpected benefit to the evening which enhanced people's overall enjoyment of the show across both non-regular and regular opera goers.
Non-regular opera goer
Regular opera goer
The thing that I enjoyed the least or didn't meet my expectations
As you'd expect from the NPS there are very few strong comments with in these. Comments most often related to the venues and bar, and mostly referring to speed of service and temperature being too high. Interestingly though, non-opera goers left more specific feedback in relation to the technology in the show and how it worked. Comments around not knowing how to use twitter, and the subtitles not being visible from all parts of the audience were common themes here. This group seemed to have had higher expectations about the unusual nature of the show and this was important to them in their overall experience. There is also a correlation between those who left these comments and them also scoring 7 or 8 out of 10 - when asked what would lead them to score 9 or 10 out of 10, many people said that if these issues were resolved this would have led them to score 9 or 10.
There was some comments about not being clear on the piece and finding the plot confusing at times, particularly from those who weren't regular opera goers, however this didn't seem to detract from their overall experience or put them off. Many people also rationalised this by referencing a parallel with their own experiences of being overwhelmed by twitter / social media at times.
Non-Regular Opera Goer NPS Score
This is the group most likely to be noisy positive advocates of both #Echochamber and also 'The Aequitas Collective,' actively promoting the experience. From the analysis we also know that this group are more likely to have seen the opera because of knowing someone in the show. This group were the most surprised with how much they enjoyed the overall experience and that they would be the most likely group to go and see something similar because of this experience. Simply put this group are most likely to be "new converts" to both contemporary opera and positive advocate followers of 'The Aequitas Collective'
This group is the least likely to be neutral about their experience of the show and company, with almost 8% more likely than the overall group to give negative feedback about the show.
81% of this group strongly enjoyed themselves, and would go and see something similar.
Defied their expectations of opera, having more music and story lines that related to them than many in this group expected. Something else important to these respondents is how it was thought-provoking for them. Comments referred more to the overall experience for this group and their enjoyment of the show, while also finding it challenging.
This correlates with the cultural segments and shows comments you'd expect from the two segments.
"Don't judge it until you've seen it"
"This was different and they could act not just sing. It summed up today’s culture"
"It's not what you think! It's interactive and funny and queer as well as dramatic"
"Try it it’s not old fashioned or dull"
A selection of quotes from the audience survey where non-regular opera goers responded to the question: how would you describe this to someone who said "I don't like opera"?
Few people left comments against this statement, but seemed generally satisfied to impressed with the quality of what they saw and the overall experience. An interesting comment about wanting to have lessons first - curiously, could this be around social media or the art form?
Regular Opera Goer NPS Score
This group are most likely to be neutral or passive positive advocates of the group, talking positively with balance about the show if asked by others. 31% of this group are likely to be positive noisy advocates of 'the Aequitas Collective;' and #Echochamber, around 5% less than when compared to the overall group.
"Try this one. It's contemporary and challenging and could change your ideas about how diverse the genre really is"
"You will love the characters and give it a go, it’s not your regular opera"
"This is not your run of the mill opera - how often would you get to interact with the characters using Twitter in a wagnerian work??"
"Absolutely none of the things you dislike about opera happen in this opera"
A selection of quotes from the audience survey where regular opera goers responded to the question: how would you describe this to someone who said "I don't like opera"?
Comments generally focus on the high production values and positive analysis of elements, such as music, performances and singing, themes, and the topic explored. There is general approval from this group that these elements worked well together to give a highly creative and thought-provoking work that got this group thinking about their relationship with social media.
Not for me / Didn't like it
Few comments were left here, but seemed to either be giving development ideas for the plot / content with a comment indicating that they are now curious to see something similar despite saying this particular piece is not for them. Other comments were left perceiving the piece as 'pretentious' and a comment about 'getting the message early on'
Interestingly, this group still represents the views of people who gave the show a try - there seems to be little evidence of regular opera goers in this category
Learning for opera companies:
- The ending of the piece got the most constructive feedback, with audiences feeling that the ending would benefit from a different ending that was more inline with the rest of the performance.
- Strong character development is important. Respondents who identified themselves as men were less likely than those who identified themselves as women to report feelings of empathy or understanding of the main character.
- The music and performances were very important to audiences. The music and skill of singing performance was common among both groups as being very important in their reasoning for whether they'd recommend.
- Ensuring that in such a technical show and where non-native languages are used, the subtitles and interactive elements enjoy 100% uptime during every performance.
- Having contemporary themes and storylines that have a clear relevance to audiences was an effective tool at getting discussions going between audiences and getting them talking to others about the show
- The use of a post show discussion enhanced the overall experience of those who attended.