Last night I went to Glyndebourne for the first time ever! For those of you that don’t know it; it’s beautiful opera house which is set in the picturesque garden of a rural mansion. I squeezed into an old full length ball gown that I had lying dormant in my wardrobe, popped on a pair of stilettos and decorated myself head to toe in as much glitz as I could lay my hands onto. Smokey eyes, big hair, one of my mother’s pashes and I was set to go! On arrival I was met in the garden by a tall, dark and handsome twenty something year old who plied me with pimms and smoked salmon before walking me through the mansion to our seats in the opera house. The lights went down, the overture started and the first scene started with sex and scandal! We picnicked in the interval sitting in the twilight garden; red wine, cold slices of beef and new potatoes followed by a wicked chocolate desert. The second half flew by and before I knew it I was sadly saying good night to the opera house strolling slowly back to the car.
It sounds romantic, but I can tell you it was far from it. You see of course, none of this would have happened without the funding, providing of the picnic and chaperoning of Rupert’s Godfather and my mother. Despite all its glory and glamour we were the youngest people there that night. But I know that given the chance nearly all of my friends would have loved to come. The opera we saw was Don Giovanni; an opera about sex, rape, murder scandal and love - it beat Eastenders hands down! With fire, blood and drama this opera was perfect for teenagers and twenty somthing year olds. Picnicking was like eating at an upmarket festival; the atmosphere electric but the food substantially better and the wellies swapped for heals.
The reason for the lack of young people at many opera houses is because of the industry's niche and exclusive target market; professionals and the very wealthy. Tickets are therefore priced extraordinarily high. The knock on effect of this is that younger generations tend not to go and the opera is often now seen as intimidating, intellectual and frightfully posh; which it really needn’t be.
Glyndebourne however have recognised this. They are aware of a host of opportunities in this industry and have recently put on special productions that put young people and the community at the centre. Sixth formers sing and play alongside leading opera singers. The aim is to find new talent and to reach out to teenagers. They also have an education scheme that offer opera workshops, a youth opera and cheap tickets!
Focussing on new customers like this has ignited flare and buzz and in turn could pave the way for new innovative productions, push productivity frontiers outwards and potentially raise the industry to a new level!
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