I saw Mother Courage in the Olivier theatre at the National. I paid ₤10. Everyone in the 1100 seat theatre paid ₤10. That is because one show in every season at the National is sponsored by Travelex. They have given their sponsorship specifically to reduce ticket price.
Perhaps this sort of scheme should be adopted by national and state theatre companies in Australia. If OA was given funding or corporate sponsorship and told it was to directly subsidise ticket price, making every seat for every show of a particular opera $20, surely this would enable more people to enjoy the art form?
I'm quite certain I fell in love with opera simply by having the opportunity to watch so much of it. In 2006, while still working at the Opera Centre, I attended something like 10 operas in 3 or 4 months over the winter season. Seeing so many in such a short space of time helped me to differentiate between different styles of composition, and become much more acquainted with opera, which has seriously enhanced my enjoyment and appreciation of subsequent productions.
In 2006 I also played soccer for a local club. I was absolutely terrible. I usually have nothing to do with sport that isn't walking or dancing. I would never voluntarily watch sport (I think prior to 2006 I could safely say I'd watched football on 4 occasions, and cricket only twice). I didn't like sport. I didn't play it or watch it. I didn't understand it. I resent(ed) the amount of time, money and energy other people spent on sport.
You may recall that 2006 was a soccer world cup year. All of a sudden I found myself not only playing soccer on Sunday mornings and watching my friends play soccer every second Saturday, I was getting up in the middle of the night to watch Australia play soccer. And I was enjoying it.
See in just a few short weeks, though my soccer playing skills were still atrocious, I had gained an understanding of what soccer was about. I understood what was happening on the field. I spoke the language. I was happy to be part of a soccer watching community. I turned into someone who sat on the edge of their seat and could hardly breathe for stress during the last minutes of that game against Italy; someone who stood on the sideline at local soccer games, jumping and screaming, like a well practised soccer mum.
And this is why I think that Opera (and theatre) is a little bit like soccer. A lot of people don't go to Opera because they think they don't like it. I would suggest that perhaps they don't know it. I spent 24 years of my life claiming to not like sport and in 4 months I had to admit that actually playing and watching soccer was lots of fun.
This is why I wish there was a way for people to see lots of opera for a relatively small price, so that they could learn to speak its language. So that they would have a chance to hear the melodies speak to them. This is why the Travelex season at the National is great because It enables people regardless of income to see brilliant and sometimes very challenging theatre (Mother Courage for goodness sake!!). This is why The Sydney Symphony's discovering concerts are a brilliant idea because it introduces audiences to how music works.
A singer once said to me that he admired Cricket because of its Wagner like properties. I hope that in this country that in general admires sport, shopping and working long hours and that doesn't have time for the arts industry at all, let alone opera, that over time people will become adventurous with the theatre and arts events they become involved with. Perhaps people will join a choir or a community theatre group and gain new musical experiences that way. Perhaps they will watch OA's production of the Marriage of Figaro when it is released in cinemas later this year. Maybe they will go to the MCA or Museum of Sydney or to an event in the Sydney Festival over summer. Hopefully whatever art from people become involved with they will begin to see that the arts industry is a little bit like sport. It creates a sense of community and is exercises the soul. It is there to be enjoyed and engaged with.
My flirtation with soccer was brief. But I think my experience of life (dare I be that dramatic!) has been enriched because of it. I'd encourage everyone to seriously consider things they think they don't like and wonder if perhaps they just don't understand it, or simply haven't given it a fair go. And if, after your adventures into new forms of entertainment, you still don't like it, that's fine. Life would be boring if we were all exactly the same.
No comments:
Post a Comment