The Theater Biel Solothurn and the Sinfonie Orchester Biel were in the black in the 2011/12 season. However, the number of subscribers to the orchestra fell slightly.
According to a press release from Theater Orchester Biel Solothurn (TOBS), a good 60,000 people attended the theater's performances. The capacity utilization rate thus rose to 73.1 percent. The Biel Symphony Orchestra welcomed 17,411 people to its 41 concerts. The two institutions closed their first joint season with a positive result.
In the drama division, the occupancy rate for in-house productions in the two theatres in Biel and Solothurn rose to 71.9% (previous year: 68%), while in musical theater it remained constant at 75.6% (previous year: 76%). The most successful play of the last season was "Die Dreigroschenoper" by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill in a production by director Katharina Rupp with 5216 admissions and an occupancy rate of around 92%, while the most successful opera was Mozart's "Don Giovanni" (directed by Gerd Heinz) with 4753 admissions and an occupancy rate of 88.8%.
The number of subscribers to the theater has increased. A total of 2006 subscriptions were sold during the season (previous year: 1881). The Symphony Orchestra, on the other hand, recorded a slight fall in subscriber numbers: A total of 691 subscriptions were sold (713 in the 2010/2011 season).
While the number of visitors to the ten symphony concerts in Biel fell by a total of 435, or 6.1 percent, the number of listeners at the senior citizens' and school concerts increased.
The 2011/12 financial year closed with a profit of CHF 136,000 (previous year: CHF 20,000). The proportion of self-generated funds in the joint account is 24.1 percent. This means that the Theater Orchester Biel Solothurn TOBS Foundation exceeds the own funds requirement of 20 percent stipulated in the performance contract.