OPERA magazine, bastion of the fogey rearguard, has launched an assault on the ROH for daring to market to the under-60s.  Andrew Pierce reports in the Torygraph:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/25/nopera125.xml

Perceptive readers will notice an advert for the ITV ho-ho sitcom "Benidorm" adjacent to Pierce's blustering tirade about dumbing-down 

You might be right there   Karl Jenkins hasn't had an ROH premiere yet, I believe

But y'never know.  Many years ago now, when that "other" opera house in WC2 was premiering THE MASK OF ORPHEUS (it having been passed-over by the ROH, who'd commissioned it in the first place) I was charged with the task of encouraging school-age students to come to the performances.  I was surprised and delighted that Marks & Spencers PLC thought this was a marvellous idea, and underwrote the costs of a series of introductory workshops and study-days in connection with the piece.  So it's not beyond the bounds of possibility (considering where Tesco are trying to position themselves these days) that a grocers might take interest in music of major importance    The Sainsbury family have been patrons of the ROH for years, after all - although I suspect this is more out of personal interest and altruism than any hope to cash-in on the results.

To me, the most stunning bit of lunacy is this:


How much spare cash does the ROH have? How much of it went to Dunnhumby to provide this insight?

They could have phoned me and I would have told them that for free... and I'm totally ignorant of opera... 

 

I know I speak for far more than just myself when I drop the bombshell that the two groups are not mutually exclusive 

I read somewhere recently - I think it might have been a post by one of the regulars at TOP, or perhaps even here - a theory that the myth of opera appealing only to middle-aged and above is born of the fact that younger professionals DO go to the opera, but the journalists sitting in free Stalls seats can't see far enough to assess the demographic of the Amphitheatre

I can’t really see what this is all about – probably because I haven’t seen the original magazine article.  Are they really complaining because there’s going to be a three-day happening on the sacred grounds of the ROH?  Or is Terry Hall (wasn’t he Lenny the Lion’s partner?) falling into the increasingly common error of trying to force people through the doors who don’t want to be there?  If the former, then the mag will deservedly be ignored; if the latter then there might be a serious danger of alienating not only the core audience, but those in the target age group who are actually sick of the ‘cool’ crowd and want to explore something different on its own merits.

Is there really a shortage of 20-45 year olds in the ROH audience? I can’t say it’s ever struck me that way.  There always seems to be plenty of them when I’m there but maybe that’s because I gravitate towards the amphitheatre on pure cost grounds.  I was certainly going to the ROH in my thirties and I’ve introduced several people to the opera at that age; and, I’m glad to say, most of them are still going a few times a year (and two became more zealous than me and are now ‘Friends’ of the house).  I can put my hand on my heart and say that, of those who weren’t hooked, lack of ‘coolness’ wasn’t a factor – they just tried opera and didn’t enjoy it.  I wonder, though, if Dunhummby’s brief was to get bums on the more expensive seats.  Mention of ‘professionals in their 20s and 30s’ hints at this.  If that’s the case I suspect they have an uphill task – people who can afford £100+ per seat on a regular basis are in short supply – as they always have been.  Of course the consultants get paid whatever happens, don’t they?

I'd agree entirely, Reiner.  I also wonder whether this marketing push is motivated more by "bottom line" considerations - an ageing clientele is no basis for the long term, and presumably Ms Hoxha and the apparatchicks have been chanting their usual empty slogans about inclusivity - than by a real desire to broaden the base.  Not so much about getting down with the yoof than impressing the bean-counters and the bureaucrats.

Not long ago a Tescos put up in about 12 minutes, perched symbolically across a bridge in Gerrards Crawse fell to its death, rissoles strewn along the track with the edf and straw holding it together. The resulting keening was heard  as far away as Slough, and one felt that Jenkins was somehow, er, spiritually present around  the smouldering embers.