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Opera is cooler than you think by Tim Lardner In 1975 Queen released their fourth album, A Night at the Opera, a little-remembered record containing one of the most famous ballads in the history of rock and roll. Queen’s Night is capped off by the climactic ballad “Bohemian Rhapsody,” a song rich with vague references and intimations of classic opera. The headbangingly beautiful “Rhapsody” serves as a tenuous bridge between the high art of opera and younger generations, who find the world of high- pitched, window-breaking, fat-lady-singing opera intimidating and irrelevant. Yet Queen succeeds where many opera companies in America today fail, that is, in introducing a generation of ears to the power of operatic song. The reason for this failure is clear: opera today offers little to young audiences. Opera is not on the Internet, and does not come off as an art so much as a stereotype. The only opera that Generation X experiences is through marketing. Opera is a Rolaids commercial spelling R-E-L-I-E-F to the sounds of La Boheme. And who has not watched a middle-aged sitcom husband cooking up some wacky scheme to avoid a night of certain agony? Most opera companies and opera insiders boil these perceptions down to intimidation, based most often on “myths” about their sacred art. Books and articles attempt to arouse new audiences but offer little real advice for opera newcomers. The recently released Getting Opera: A Guide for the Cultured but Confused offers a list of “opera jokes” in its first chapter. One timely example: “What’s the difference between a soprano and a terrorist? You can negotiate with a terrorist.” Clearly there must be a better way. Maybe there’s a kind of elitism going on here on the part of opera insiders, who are happy to see the public enjoying popular warblers like Charlotte Church or the Three Tenors but are reluctant to more to make opera truly accessible or maybe it’s just a matter of finding ways to hook newcomers that actually work. In Milwaukee, a place not usually associated with the cultured refinement of opera, the Florentine Opera Company is taking practical steps to put a friendlier face on its art. The nation’s fifth oldest opera company, the Florentine has created a stage for itself in some unlikely places, reaching beyond the audiences it regularly draws to the Marcus Center downtown. A longtime field trip destination, the Florentine has a tradition of educational outreach to Milwaukee’s primary and secondary schools, touting programs that help students make the “transition from Itsy Bitsy Spider to Madame Butterfly.” Yet for many years the Florentine, now entering its 72nd season - neglected to make this transition any easier for parents and young professionals in the Milwaukee area. Audience development consisted exclusively of outreach to high-end donors and season ticket subscribers through galas, lectures and champagne receptions. Today audience development at the Florentine has shifted to a demographic defined by Florentine Special Events Manager Molly B. McDonald as “anyone who is focusing on a career.” This audience, so often neglected by the mainstream opera community, is finally on the Florentine’s radar. “We have just recently formed a new audience development committee,” says McDonald. “They are focused on reaching a younger audience.” Of this audience, McDonald continues, “they are scared by stereotypes and hoity toityness….We are trying to break stereotypes, really trying.” |
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