Opera makes overtures to new generation

WHEN Welsh singing diva Katherine Jenkins replaced the traditional 20-stone heroine and G4 stormed the charts, suddenly opera seemed sexy. Now it appears opera is the new rock and roll - with tickets sales to younger audiences in Scotland up sevenfold this season.

More than 700 people under 26 came to the recent run of Madama Butterfly, Puccini's classic opera, in Glasgow, Scottish Opera revealed yesterday. That was up on just 100 a year ago.

And the same pattern of a surprisingly young turn-out is showing in Edinburgh, where both Puccini's Madama Butterfly and Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor are on stage this week.

Opera has often suffered in Britain from the perception it is an artform for a wealthy elite - and that its audience is growing older and older.

But the company has been aggressively marketing the £10 tickets for the under-26 group it introduced last year. In Glasgow, it took out adverts on the underground for the first time, and in both cities it targeted the student population.

"If we don't attract the young audiences now, where are we gong to be in ten years?" a spokeswoman said. "They are cheaper than going to a gig."

A recent experiment at the Cameo cinema has underlined the appetite for opera. Two operas were beamed live to the Edinburgh screen from the New York Metropolitan Opera, one of the world's finest.

"They were incredibly successful and it brought in a completely different market," said Lynn Morrison, the cinema's business manager.

People taking their seats in the Cameo watched people in New York doing the same at the afternoon performance.

"We were getting people who had daughters in America who were watching it live at the same time as they were watching it in Edinburgh," Ms Morrison said.

Scottish Opera is earning some enthusiastic reviews two years after a debt crisis - the latest of several - saw it lay off its full-time chorus along with other staff.

In Edinburgh and Glasgow, the company's marketing campaign has stressed that the £10 tickets are bookable in advance for any ticket in the house.

The £10 under-26 ticket scheme was launched last season but has taken off this year, with Glasgow sales rising from just 100 to 700.

"It's about accessibility, making people able to come to the opera, and attracting a younger audience," the Scottish Opera spokeswoman said.

"We are delighted with the results. You'll notice a lot of young people in the audience. It balances out because we sell £10 tickets on the day anyway. The benefit of getting young people through the doors is that it adds to the atmosphere, and we have to be accessible. We have to open doors and we want people to come and hear these wonderful stories."

The opera has already beaten its financial targets for ticket sales.

AN ISSUE OF IMAGE

SARAH McNeil, 17, is everything Scottish Opera hopes for the future. The East Renfrewshire school pupil went to her first opera, Madama Butterfly, with her mother.

"I thought everyone would be really stuck-up, but everyone was really nice," she said afterwards. "It was so emotional... me and my mum came home humming all the tunes."

Scottish Opera has used a "before and after" interview with Sarah as part of the promotion for its productions, ranging from ordinary opera-goers to celebrities like the actor Tam Dean Burn.

"It wasn't what I expected, it wasn't as formal as I thought, it was much more relaxed," she said. "All day at school I was really excited and everyone wanted to come too. I told them I loved it all and they are all going to try and come now."

But the struggle opera still faces with young people was described by Edinburgh University medical student Amreet Battu, 21.

She has studied music at an advanced level and travelled to London last weekend to see the Benjamn Britten opera, Death in Venice. She had not heard of Scottish Opera's £10 tickets.

"I'm not sure if young people were ever really that into opera. None of my friends at University are into it," she said.

"I guess people probably think it's boring, or doesn't speak to them.