|
Opera’s push into the mainstream
“You don’t sell opera like a pair of jeans,” opera director Denis Krief was quoted as saying last week as he reacted to the latest advertising campaign from Italy’s La Scala.
The posters plastered across Milan use a mixture of blood and gore to attract a younger audience.
La Scala spokesman Carlo Maria Cella says it is a plan which is working: “Every theatre has to cultivate a renewal of its audience. As someone wrote: new blood for the old ceremony.”
Attracting new audiences is the perpetual problem for an art form which is often accused of being elitist, and it is one opera companies in the UK have been trying to solve.
It is nearly 10 years since the Royal Opera House (ROH) re-opened its doors after its refurbishment. On average it is 5% short of a full house every night – with demand for a recent run of Carmen leading to a returns queue stretching around Covent Garden’s block.
Below Bizet CARMEN Final scene Migenes Domingo (Rosi Film)
Did you find this information fun or helpful? If you did, consider donating to help keep us going..
Popularity: unranked [?]
