Opera Today

By Tom Service [The Guardian, 25 October 2005]

Glyndebourne Touring Opera had a big idea for this autumn: the world premiere of an opera for what they describe as the "lost generation" of 18- to 30-year-olds. "Lost", that is, to the opera house, since twentysomethings make up only a tiny percentage of the average operatic crowd, which is still dominated by a greying, elderly population. This is the third youth opera that Glyndebourne have put on in the past few years, after Misper (written specifically for young teenagers), and Zoë (an opera on cloning), for sixth-formers. They've used the same creative team of writer Stephen Plaice and composer John Lunn for the new piece, Tangier Tattoo. It is billed not as a boring old "opera" but an "operatic thriller", and it's a tale of drugs, sex, terrorism and skin decoration, subjects that emerged from focus groups as the most likely to turn on the target audience.