Page 22 - FINAL_Theatre of Sound Coverage Book

They were not thought of as great composers with an unchanging vision – it was left to Wagner to
assume that role for himself – but as purveyors of great, flexible entertainment.

What could change today to liberate our opera houses? They have opened up their foyers, but
perhaps we could become used to reduced and reworked operas, to draw in an ever-wider
audience. Opera is in a different situation from concerts: there, an audience can be introduced to
new work as part of a mixed programme that reverts to the familiar classics (as will happen at
the Last Night of the Proms on Saturday), whereas an opera audience has to decide to take a big
risk on a new or rare work for a whole evening. Opera North rang the changes with its clever
season of mixed one-act pieces by different composers: might there be other alternative ways in for
a new generation?

Just as operas need not be fixed, so too the repertory is gradually shifting: we think we know the
essential operas, but the operatic canon is ever-evolving. This is an eternal topic which has been
the subject of lively debate this year in Opera magazine between two of our most discriminating
operatic scholars Jonathan Cross and Alexandra Coghlan. While Cross bemoans the predominance
of core works in the repertory because of their over-familiarity, and suggests lists of stimulating
alternatives, Coghlan supports the central works and the continuing right to weep over La Bohème.

Rising star Sophie Bevan as The Governess in Garsington Opera's Turn of the Screw CREDIT:
John Snelling

We do need the repertory to be reinvigorated, but this requires great performers who will commit
with their talent and audiences who will buy tickets. A shining example is the sudden rise in our
generation of Handel’s operas, neglected for centuries, in the programmes of all opera companies:
their piercingly direct emotions suit the temper of our times while allowing a director’s fantasy to
flourish – they have hit the moment. Some works hover on the edge of the repertory, like
Szymanowski’s King Roger, powerfully argued for by the Royal Opera.

I would argue passionately for new work, rare work, neglected work to enter the repertory, but
tempered by the experience of the perpetual challenge of balancing budgets with adventure. They
must be presented against the bedrock of pieces people have come to love, with an audience
development programme which draws them to trust the unknown. In these days of depressingly