October 22nd : Sally Soprano

During this simulation, I was Sally's agent, and I was paired with Mickaël, who was the Opera's Business Manager.

Sally had been paid $22,000 four years ago for the part of Norma, which was superior to the standards of the time. Nowadays, due to the inflation and the new popularity of opera, top opera singers are paid double - but Sally isn't really considered as a top opera singer anymore. The young soprano who sang the role last year was paid $24,000, thus I decided that this would be my reservation price : Sally couldn't be paid less, since she has way more experience. Furthermore, for a secondary role in Norma the previous year, she had been paid $12,500, a bit more than half of my reservation price. The best price I was hoping for was $35,000, which I thought would have been really good given the fact that Sally wasn't at the pinnacle of her career anymore. 

When we started the negotiation, I asked Michaël how the opera was doing with the preparation of the show, and asked him how many other 'candidates' they had for the role of Norma since their lead singer couldn't perform anymore. I insisted on the fact that this must have been a shock just a few weeks before the show and that now, three weeks before the premiere, they did not have much time for a young singer to prepare the role. 

Mickaël was direct and honest : he said that, indeed, they did not have a lot of time and they were only interested in contracting Sally, because she was familiar with the part and had been very successful. He asked me how much I wanted for her, so I said $35.000. He said that it was too much in comparison to the amount of money paid to the singer who had played the part the year before, and offered $28,000. I then asked for $33,000, and we finally agreed on $32,000. It was a deal we were both very happy about.