Working-class opera in the UK has a long, proud history. In the 1920s, the impresario Lillian Bayliss gathered the poor of South London to the Old Vic to see performances by Mozart and Verdi. The idea was to get them out of the pub, but it really changed their lives. Then there was the working-class opera culture of the East End, where performances at the People’s Palace on Mile End Road were always sold out.
During the Great Depression countless Welsh miners became opera singers: it was much better than being on the dole. And during the Second World War, Sadler’s Wells performed in factories, barracks and church halls, the length and breadth of the land. People were hungry for culture and this was something fun and a little different.
It was all cheap, cheerful and often a little slapstick. Glyndebourne, where Labor deputy leader Angela Rayner recently attended a performance, is neither of those things. It’s the most sophisticated face of British opera, set in an idyllic location known for exquisite gowns and sumptuous picnics. It is and always has been elegant, musically excellent and, yes, expensive. Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab called Rainer a “champagne socialist” for going.
But let’s put this into perspective. Many activities cost a lot. Top ticket prices for the West End have reached staggeringly exorbitant levels. At £62, Rainer paid less to go to Glyndebourne than she would have paid for top-priced tickets to hear the Rolling Stones or Adele play in Hyde Park this July. Millions of people from all walks of life have fallen in love with opera over the past century. But at the same time, it has always been derided – characterized as too intellectual (although most operas aren’t) and as, well, too foreign. Abroad, it is quite normal to see high-ranking politicians at the opera.
Angela Merkel is a regular visitor to Bayreuth. It is seen as a way of celebrating the nation’s culture. Britain, on the other hand, is caught between the philistine populism of the right and the cultural relativism that shuns anything “high-brow” on the left. Today’s MPs keep their operatic leanings quiet for fear of being called that awful thing – elitist. Going to Desert Island Discs? Better pick some songs that look cool.
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