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For about 20 years now, I have been trying to convince the world that opera isn't just for toffs. I have appeared, swearing and cursing, in football documentaries, had photographs taken that show off my tattoos, done national media interviews with my producer colleague James Clutton under the banner headline 'The Bad Boys of Opera' and generally been as much of an oik as I could whilst extolling the virtues of late 19th century giovane scuola opera.
In these efforts, I have been the consummate professional. I couldn't have tried harder to be the poster boy of the cultured commoner. And in that time, whilst I effed and blinded my way through season after season, we have been doling out thousands of free tickets and brought tens of thousands of people to the open door of this glorious art form. Opera houses everywhere have been doing something similar and from time to time the British public goes mental for a singer under Simon Cowell's wing who waves cursorily in the direction of opera (showing, yet again, the enormous natural capacity for the art form that exists in the UK).
And yet, despite all of this, every year I am asked to write a piece that sets out why opera isn't for toffs. So perhaps all my efforts have failed but I am not sure why I should have to keep flogging the horse to death. I can't be entirely sure, but posh people go to the theatre and the cinema, read books and watch costume dramas. And yes, they go to opera too. And here is an interesting stat, recent research showed that there are about 7.3 million people in the UK would like to experience opera, live, in a theatre. More than half of them are from the lower social economic groups but they say they are scared, intimidated, won't understand. It is, they say, too expensive. On that last point it would be disingenuous to say that opera isn't expensive but of course, as we all now know, there are also thousands upon thousands of cheap seats that are always available in houses up and down the land. Opera Holland Park gives 1700 free seats and about 3,000 at £12 this year. Opera can also be seen in pubs, small theatres, gardens and even at the cinema. On average, it is probably cheaper than football and certainly less expensive than a Madonna ticket or a West End musical.
Let's be honest though, price isn't really the greatest bar is it? Put simply, the real problem with opera in this country is the way it is portrayed in the media who lap up the whines and whinges of those crossover singers who tell the world that opera doesn't want them because they are not posh enough. And I suppose we in the business are partly to blame by keeping the distinctions alive in our articles (like this one) and our constant trumpeting of our schemes and outreach programmes. Like those ante-natal classes that try to convince mothers that childbirth can be tolerable and merely 'uncomfortable', we are a little in danger of protesting too much.
The problem runs deeper than price and dress codes. The problem begins with cultural education in schools and the proscriptive attitudes of youth workers and teachers who tell our teenagers what culture is best for them and panders to a one dimensional image of what kids will like. Until opera and the classical arts in general become just another part of the cultural tapestry in this country we will continue to have these debates - endlessly.
Opera is entertainment of a sort few others can match. It has updated itself, is as spectacular as any performance art and just happens to feature the greatest music ever composed; that isn't a matter of class or social standing. What qualifications does one need to understand that? I have lost count of the people I have met that found opera and culture late in life and who bitterly regretted not having done it sooner but who do we blame for that? How many millions more walk the streets of Britain restricting themselves to a narrow cultural spectrum because nobody played them a CD of Tosca when they were 10 years old? Yes, wealthy, middle class people go to opera. But so do all sorts of other people. Who cares and why should that stop you?
In fact, some of this is so obvious, so mind-numbingly predictable, it's boring.
So in that spirit, here is a common man's guide to opera.
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I am not sure if you expect me to say that the arts are more deserving of money than a soldier who has lost both of his legs. Because I won't of course. Oddly enough, I don't think our society should take an "either or" approach to looking after disabled servicemen. Call me old fashioned.
I think society should not even think either or when it comes to helping people live a life free from pain. I do not expect you to say anything, as to try and put a case forward that justifies moving funds away from social help is a non starter in the real world.
I respect freedom of choice but also think that some forms of entertainment have had their day
I regularly go to the Royal Opera House for £20 or less. Not the best seats, perhaps, but the seat does not 'make' the experience. In the summer, there are free 'Big Screen' events around the country. Both the Met and the ROH have live broadcasts in cinemas. Sky Arts 2 also regularly shows opera productions from around the world.
Opera deals with emotions at its' core - love, jealousy, joy, grief, amusement. Regardless of language issues (most theatres now offer surtitles anyway) the music conveys emotion with such power, particularly in your favourite 19th C. operas, that it would require a significant effort NOT to understand.
The assumptions that are often made about what children will enjoy or find 'accessible' are often so patronising as to be nauseating. Find me a child who wouldn't find the hiding and disguises of 'Figaro' funny? Or one who wouldn't want to join in onstage with the Witch, the gingerbread house, and 'Hansel und Gretel', or Mr Fox and co. in Opera Holland Park's 'Fantastic Mr Fox'...By depriving children of exposure to great art through fear and prejudice, we are underestimating them, robbing them of the opportunity to experience the positive emotional and intellectual expansion such exposure can provide.
Ticket price isn't the issue either - competition for our attention is so great that a production must be special to brave the tube, pay the babysitter, buy dinner, interval drinks and aprogram only to sit in the gods and imagine the singers' facial expressions.
Opera in its non-watered down version - as you rightly say - must become a part of the general cultural fabric to get where it needs to be, which is in people's living rooms. When it's as normal to switch on the TV and see Netrebko on Jonathon Ross as it is Al Murray, we may be getting somewhere.
But the opera business' dilemma is that mass appeal = dumbing down. I believe there is a third way that can only be instigated from the inside - but do they want it enough? My latest post really hit a nerve within the singing community, and I'd love your opinion too :
http://www.nataliepeluso.com/2012/why-opera-singers-need-a-new-call-to-arms
"book the best seats in the house for JUST £75 (usually £92)",... it says,...
or "Dress Circle for £60 (usually £79)"
What sort of reasonably minded couple from well out of London could wish those sort of charges on themselves?
At 'full' price you are looking at a bare week's wages just get there, sit for an hour or so in the theatre, and get home again, which can double if a night is spent in a nearby hotel.
No wonder my neighbour spent £500 going to see War Horse.
It is also difficult for non Londoners too but then again there are plenty of touring companies doing the rounds. The home audio visual experience is much improved of course but I still think you can't beat sitting in the theatre seeing and hearing it live.
Put it this way, if you really wanted to go to opera, you would be able to find plenty of cheap or inexpensive ways of doing so. The biggest problem is generating a desire among the population to expand their horizons. I think that is the central point I am making.
I did say previously that pricing had seen the ordinary people, with small disposable income levels, effectively shut out.
I also said, maybe that is the way the entertainment business prefer it.
As for small theatre. I agree, there are little theatres with committed acting crews as well as larger venues with pro or semi pro crews to hand. But even there prices are not for the faint hearted or impecunious.
In the more pop side of the game, when young I was often to be seen in local spots, where for a couple of shillings, or maybe five, if a more big name was to be on the bill, we would get solo's and groups such as the Beatles, Gerry and the Pacemakers, the Merseybeats, even the likes of Acker Bilk.
I remember having a great night in 'Tommy's music Hall;, a well known pub in Ardwick Manchester where Roy Castle appeared, nothing to pay, as long as you bought your pints.
Then all of a sudden, I guess once the publicity bods got their hands on the business, prices hit the roof and didn't stop there, as they now appear to be heading for the outer reaches of the Universe.
I also recall going to a London theatre to see South Pacific, with Mary Martin in the lead as Nellie Forbush, entrance fee 3/6d (18p)
either that is the way the 'toffs' and opera establishement want it played, or the education system is sadly lacking.
Otherwise the less affluent would be more attracted to low cost venues.
Try telling that the devout opera (and live theatre) lovers who can no longer afford a trip to the venue.
Theatre seats at over £100 a pop, hardly in the scope of a couple on marginally above basic wages.
Even more so if they live out in the sticks,. and need to overnight in the capital or some other major city.
Kevin Spacey commented about the cost involved in going to the theatre, I guess would include opera.
A neighbour recently went to London to see I think the War Horse, he and his wife and daughter, with the cost of the hotel his couple of hours in the theatre cost him over £500.
Not for me at those prices.
The last time I sat in an auditorium it was the Haymarket to see Ingrid Bergman and Wendy Hiller in The Mountains of The Moon. I paid a relatively high price at that time, about £8 (1978), only because those two were at the time for me just about the greatest actors on the scene.
I get all the drama and opera etc on my nice big 46inch LCD screen with superb audio through my super quality stereo system. No travel, no hotels, no stress on crowded trains, or buses, just 24/7 access whilst sitting comfortably in my living room.
The cost of which would be lost in going to London about three times. All in all, about five hours theatre or opera. No bargain.
Is opera is about creating jobs for make-up, costume, props, sets, etc and all other ancillaries or is it about the dramatic arts of singing and acting? It can be performed in the open in ordinary daily clothes without any paraphernalia.