The strong ticket sales have come despite reviews that ranged from mixed to brutal. Some reviewers have seized on Maazel's celebrity status—he is music director of the New York Philharmonic—and the fact that he invested several hundred thousand dollars of his own money in the production, and suggested that his opera did not belong at Covent Garden.

Sales may have gotten a boost from ticket prices, which, at Ô£4-Ô£50, are low by Royal Opera standards.

The ROH currently has no plans to revive the production, a spokesperson told the AP.