Artist Fees

One could easily "net" around 40 percent or less of the contracted fee...so, Fleming's $575,000 could easily have been reduced to $230,000, which,given her considerable talent and even with the fees she gets for otherperformances at other houses, is not so incredible. Add in that there areyears of preparation with no guarantee and then no guarantee that thecareer will continue for any great leangth of time at those fees and whatshe gets doesn't sound so incredible. I wouldn't be surprised if even asuccessful opera singer, when the whole career is considered, doesn'tactually make all that much. They may be well-off and secure, but not rich.Are these valid assumptions, or am a wildly understating what these folksare able to pull in?John Wood