Sir – In response to Mike Woodward (Letters, October 15), who blames bad pricing and programming for a relatively small audience at Oxford Playhouse for the new opera Letters of a Love Betrayed, I would like to counter that we are committed to building audiences for contemporary opera and to ensuring tickets are priced as cheaply as possible.

Tickets for the performance were £15, £19 and the £22 Mr Woodward mentioned.

We also offered free tickets to under 26-year-olds, and additional discounts for students, people over 60 and early bookers.

There was a special £12 ticket offer targeted at local organisations (including Opera Anywhere — the organisation with which Mike Woodward is professionally associated) for circulation to staff and friends to encourage local people to try contemporary opera.

The cost of producing and touring opera can be immense and the production was heavily subsidised through funding for Music Theatre Wales who produced the work, and at Oxford Playhouse, which presented it.

Unfortunately, the only available date in our busy and diverse autumn season was a Sunday evening, but better this than not be able to present the production at all.

Here at Oxford Playhouse we continue to make your theatre A Playhouse For Everyone, and do all we can to keep subsidising tickets and providing affordable entry points for those for whom price may be a barrier.

Michelle Dickson, Director, Oxford Playhouse