Forget the ‘hoity-toity tuxes and gowns’ — at Opera Revue you can cheer and holler. No shushing allowed

No shushing allowed.

That was one of the rules rattled off at the top of Opera Revue’s showcase gala in early November. Some of the others: keep the beer flowing, mix and mingle, snap some pictures and, as corny as it may sound, just have fun.

For opera, an art form often characterized by its — somewhat pretentious — unwritten rules of audience etiquette, the Opera Revue concert at a small live event space in Toronto’s west end was surprisingly relaxed and a heck of a lot of fun.

Libations flowed liberally from the in-house bar. Some audience members were dressed in button-down shirts and suit jackets, while others milled around in hoodies and jeans. Burlesque and drag were juxtaposed with classic works of George Bizet and Richard Wagner.

When mezzo-soprano Lillian Brooks offered a fiery interpretation of Bizet’s “Habanera” from the opera “Carmen,” spectators cheered and hollered whenever she hit a high note. No one batted an eye and, most importantly, no one shushed their neighbour.

Later in the show, “Pa, Pa, Pa,” the playful duet between two lovebirds in Mozart’s opera “The Magic Flute,” was turned into a song critiquing Toronto’s affordable housing crisis. In this version, the ubiquitous “pa’s” are turned into a slew of eff-bombs fired from the mouths of a young couple trying, in vain, to find a rental apartment.

For an opera purist, this might all sound sacrilegious. But could events like this be opera’s greatest hope for survival?

Opera Revue is part of a growing cadre of Toronto arts organizations looking to make opera more accessible and challenge the art form’s stuffy reputation. As attendance at opera companies across North America continues to decline with audiences growing older but not generally more diverse, these indie groups hope their brand of opera presented in non-traditional spaces will appeal to younger patrons who might not otherwise be interested in the art form.

“There were a lack of places where opera could be informal and accessible,” said opera singer Danie Friesen, on the impetus for starting Opera Revue in 2017. “Opera already comes with a bit of a bad rap in terms of accessibility and it’s not always easy to digest … You don’t think of the ‘Ring Cycle’ and think, ‘Oh, fun.’”

The Toronto company, run by Friesen along with pianist Claire Elise Harris and baritone Alexander Hajek, puts on events almost weekly. Hosted at local pubs and speakeasies, most of the events are pay-what-you-can.

That ticketing model, paired with the casual environment, make these events accessible. While some older opera aficionados do attend the concerts, they generally draw a younger crowd. For some, it’s their first experience listening to live opera.

Rani Kolati, 31, stumbled upon an Opera Revue event at a pub in her neighbourhood a few years ago. A recent immigrant from India by way of Nigeria, the consumer brand manager never thought opera was for her.

“The cost is definitely quite prohibitive and I generally saw it as for a certain class of people,” said Kolati, who is now an Opera Revue regular. “But the company has broken the mould and brought it to the masses.”

Events like those hosted by Opera Revue, Kolati said, have made her want to attend a full-length opera production some day. “I definitely have plans to go to the opera and experience the whole thing now,” she said.

These events offer a low-stakes entry point for new audiences. If attendees don’t enjoy opera, they can easily walk out and not regret shelling out an exorbitant amount of money, said Friesen.

The trio of artists behind Opera Revue hope companies like theirs can coexist alongside larger companies such as the Canadian Opera Company (COC), creating an operatic ecosystem in which there is something for everyone.

The established giants in the industry recognize they must do more to attract new audiences. Some are partnering or collaborating with smaller companies to connect with a younger generation. At Opera Revue’s concert in early November, the COC donated for the raffle a pair of tickets to one of its mainstage productions and is listed as a sponsor. So too is the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

These new initiatives seem to be working. On Friday, the COC reported mainstage attendance for the 2021/22 season was at 94 per cent capacity. But elsewhere in the industry, the decline in attendance is noticeable.

At the largest opera companies in North America, with annual budgets of more than $15 million, average attendance a decade ago was consistently over 80 per cent, according to Opera America’s annual survey of its members. Now attendance rates hover in the mid-70 per cent range and did so even before the pandemic.

Meanwhile, events like Opera Revue’s are often drawing sold-out audiences, with people on a wait list lining up outside.

“Opera needs to diversify in how it’s presented and consumed,” said Joel Ivany, the founder and artistic director of Against the Grain Theatre, which hosts monthly Opera Pub events in Toronto, Vancouver and Edmonton. “There will always be a place for the traditional warhorses of the canon, but for those companies that don’t look at different ways of reaching people, it’s not going to be great for them.”

Ivany started Opera Pub about a decade ago after a trip to Norway where he attended a similar event at a pub in Oslo.

“Growing up in this industry with opera, you’re kind of told this is the one way to do things, and this is how everyone has done it and how everyone will do it,” said Ivany. “And then I realized that’s not really the case.”

While these low-stakes concerts are beloved by audiences, they’re equally enjoyable for performers, giving artists more room to experiment and have fun.

“We love it,” said Friesen, who often sings at Opera Revue events. “Opera is often so high pressure. And it’s just nice to let go of that and have a space to play.”

For Michael Hidetoshi Mori, general director of Tapestry Opera, these accessible opera events help companies build bridges with communities and individuals who might not see their stories told onstage.

He’s reminded of his childhood and how he almost quit opera: “I’ve been in opera since I was a kid, as a child performer, but I was about to leave opera because I felt that so many of my contemporaries just didn’t get it,” he said.

“It wasn’t their fault … we weren’t building enough bridges to people’s own experiences into the contemporary world. That was very frustrating because my friends are well-educated people, often quite creative, but they didn’t see opera speaking to them.”

While Against the Grain and Opera Revue are newer companies, Tapestry, founded more than four decades ago as Tapestry Singers, has been presenting opera in non-traditional spaces for around 20 years. During the pandemic, the company launched its Box Concert series, which presented 30-minute operatic concerts on a travelling stage towed behind an SUV.

They performed in parks, on porches and outside long-term care homes across the city. Often, half the audience were experiencing opera for the first time, said Hidetoshi Mori.

“We sometimes forget that opera is not about hoity-toity tuxes and gowns. It’s literally about the heart of the music and a singer making something incredibly moving happen,” he said. “That’s what we saw at the Box Concerts: people sitting beside friends, family and strangers, and having an opportunity to marvel at the incredible artistry and the generosity of these singers.”

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