Orchestra's performance selling out fast

If you want to catch Trans Siberian Orchestra's "Christmas Eve and Other Tales," act fast. There are only a few hundred tickets left for the Wednesday performance at the Show Me Center.

According to the Show Me Center's director David Ross, since Nov. 2, an average of 150 Trans Siberian Orchestra tickets a day have been sold.

"We have had a definite change in the buying public. All the publicity has started to sink in," he said. "Those sitting on the fence are jumping off the fence and buying tickets."

As of Friday, the Show Me Center had sold about 3,000 tickets for the 3,900 capacity show. Ross said more tickets could become available if the demand for the remaining tickets is great enough.

Ross credits some of the sluggishness of the initial tickets sales to confusion as to what Trans Siberian Orchestra is all about.

"I don't know if there was a realization that an orchestra doesn't mean there's no singing," Ross said. He said people's conception of the show consisting of a stage-full of people playing instruments scared people off.

Even the name Trans Siberian Orchestra has confused people.

Ross said he has had several people ask him if the group really is from Siberia.

The answer to that is no. The group, which was created by musician Paul O'Neill, was named after the Trans Siberian Railroad, which runs from Moscow all the way to Beijing and goes through some harsh terrain.

The group uses the railroad as a metaphor for the power of music to overcome great divides and unite people.

Some of the confusion has been abated by the commercials that have been running on television for the past few weeks and which allow people a visual image of the Trans Siberian Orchestra show, which Ross said can be described with the words awesome, spectacular and extravaganza.

"If you only go to see a show once every 10 years, this would be the one to go to," he said.

kalfisi@semissourian.com

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