Opera Relevancy in the UK

BBC News released an article over the weekend featuring ways that opera is striving to be more relevant in the UK.  It brought to my attention, yet again, how organizations are emphasizing accessibility and medium as a means to promote their relevancy in their communities.  The Royal Opera House is starting tickets as low as 5 pounds and "going Met" with their cinema broadcasts and live outdoor casts in the summer.   The English National Opera is bringing in high-profile directors, however Opera Magazine's Kate Molleson points out that appealing to "some sort of projection of what people think a younger audience might want is often quite an embarrassing prospect." 

 

The article also tells about opera cross-over recordings and a reality show that follows celebrities training to be opera singers as ways that might breakdown some of the barriers.

Again, Molleson has some words that sum up my reaction, "What matters is the quality of what you are doing."

 

Throughout the article I couldn't help but wonder where the audience's voice might fit into shaping these kinds of relevancy efforts.   Here's Molleson again, "It's not the art form that is elitist but it is sometimes the industry that surrounds it."

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8359379.stm

 

--Leah