Hyper Gumbo

I have been meaning to write up a review of Saturday night’s Opening Night performance, covering my delight and realizing two of my favorite songs from the Amadeus soundtrack are part of this opera, my annoyance at the people who snuck into the box seating area during intermission with a noisy kid who nearly dropped stuff over the edge (instead he dropped it on me), the amusement of seeing Razor scooters on stage, etc etc. Then I got a phone call last night, trying to sell me more tickets. I could have sworn that at the point in the check-out process where they asked for a phone number, they assured me it was not going to be used for marketing purposes, but looking at their printed Privacy Policy, I see that they saw “We will not trade or sell your phone number or e-mail address to any other business or organization”, leaving themselves open to misuse your information for their own benefit. But then I saw that in the section on how to opt-out of that usage of your information, they imply that the above statement is actually a hollow promise, that doesn’t include “your mailing information traded to other arts or non-profit organizations.”

Now I’m conflicted. Part of me feels strongly that any business that uses cold calling sales should be punished for their arrogance and anti-customer attitude, but I like the opera and want to go again. I think the best I can do is continue to buy single-show tickets to operas I want to see, while purchasing a subscription to some other arts group, and sending the receipt of said purchase to the marketing director of the Seattle Opera, along with an explanatory note of why I will not be making a direct contribution to them, nor letting them benefit from the 100% matching my employer would make.