Resonate

(Photo courtesy of Rick Harris)

These days orchestras and opera companies are doing everything they can think of to attract a younger, broader audience. (i.e. bringing Star Trek to the stage) It seems as if no one has figured out the best way to lure people under 30 into the concert hall, but I’m guessing the Canadian company Opera Lyra Ottawa is not on the right track.

The opera company is hosting its annual Opera Soiree next Saturday night, and the guest of honor is Steven Page, lead singer of the popular Canadian pop-rock band Barenaked Ladies.

Luckily it doesn’t sound like Page will be testing out his opera chops. Page briefly will sing a few pop songs, with some accompaniment by the opera’s stars. The rest of the evening will consist of tenor Michael Schade, baritone Russell Braun and rising-star mezzo-soprano Lauren Segal (She’s one to keep an eye on in the next few years.) will sing classic excerpts from The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, The Barber of Seville and others.

The standard reaction to that musical lineup from young adults: Yawn.  If an opera company wants to appeal to a younger crowd, they should focus on content, not on star power. Stage John Adams’ Doctor Atomic, or even better, put on a production of Eric Whitacre’s techno-opera Paradise Lost. Now there’s some music young hipsters would enjoy.

If anything, having Page interrupt a night of opera might alienate its older patrons who come to hear, well, opera.