Your editorial (Thwarted in its mission to bring music to the people, 10 November) misses a vital point. The trouble with opera is that it is obsessed with a small canon almost exclusively from the 18th and 19th centuries. Exceptions are few and far between, while contemporary works are as rare as hen’s teeth. And so opera isn’t just perceived (mistakenly) as elitist and expensive but also as uncool and irrelevant, especially by the young.
Scaled-down versions of classic favourites don’t come anywhere near an authentic experience, and touring them has limited effectiveness in growing audiences. Those of us further down the ladder, attempting to mount new opera on a very small scale, face a huge battle with conservative audiences, limited funding (no encouragement from the Arts Council there) and apathy from colleagues and influencers in the industry. All seem to be stuck in the operatic past.
