What is it that gives opera that stigma, the idea that it’s for people wearing fur and drinking champagne? Where did it come from and is it ever going to change? As a classical musician, I’ve always struggled with this. I love opera; I love playing it, listening to it and going to it. Yet so many people don’t. Why is that?

Well firstly I live in London and a ticket to the opera is some way out of my budget for a night’s entertainment. To go to the Opera house or Coliseum will set you back at least £20 for a very limited view and uncomfortable seats (or the pleasure of standing) with poor bad acoustics. And you need to book months in advance; if I wanted to go this weekend I would be looking at spending over £65 as no ‘cheap seats’ would be available.

However, when I was in Berlin €9 would get me in, in Paris I could buy a ticket for €5 and I could book ahead for Verona’s 2000-year-old venue for just €10. I’ve played in opera festivals in Ireland and Austria where the cheap seats varied from €15 to €60 respectively.

The price is the first most obvious answer I get when berating my non-musician friends for not going to the opera but unfortunately it’s not solid enough. They could pay £10 to see live broadcasts from La Scala or The Met in cinemas across London. They could go to the outdoor broadcasts in Covent Garden or Canary Wharf for free. So why don’t they?

It’s fair to say that opera is a complex art form. Even the most well-educated music lovers dislike opera or feel they can’t quite get to a place where they not only appreciate it but actually enjoy it. My non-musician friends vary in reasoning. One said he can’t relate to the story when it’s portrayed through constant singing (he also dislikes musicals).  Another said the acting is always terrible, and all agreed there was a sense of feeing out of place, like not knowing which cutlery to use at a fancy meal. I think it is this last point which reveals the truth. People still think opera is for snobs.

If we look at opera’s origins, we find ourselves at the beginning of the 17th Century when a ‘new art’ was introduced. The recent development of the recitative and the idea to combine drama, music, costumes and singing to portray a story became opera as we know it today. However, it was a pastime for nobles and wealthy people, performed in their palaces, as opera houses did not yet exist. So admittedly, right from the start, the first opera (written in 1600) was performed for the rich. However it didn’t remain this way. It was clear that the Italians, with their rich religious history, had a strong culture of songs and singing in church. This was singing for everyone and though opera was for a time exclusively for the rich, it eventually reverted back to its true origins amongst the ‘ordinary’ people.

I was on tour playing Verdi’s ‘Nabucco’ when I first realised the difference between Italy, Ireland and England. We had played in London to an attentive polite, if rather stuffy audience (who had no doubt paid quite a lot of money) but when we got to Bologna we faced a completely different reception. Our first concert was to be a semi-staged version, in a large arena during the day in order to allow for the local surrounding junior schools to attend. Thousands of children came and actually enjoyed it, really enjoyed it. There were six to twelve year olds who sang along to the arias and joined the chorus (being that it was in their native language!) and cheered like we were pop stars. I never had a school trip like that in Ireland. I went to see Shakespeare and other plays but never opera, and I was studying music.  My fear is that young people aren’t really get introduced to opera in the UK and Ireland, as they do in Italy, Austria or Germany. It’s still presented to us as a pastime for a rich and highbrow audience.

I keep making the distinction between my non-musician friends because as musicians, we were introduced to opera far earlier on and educated beyond such misconceptions. Not all opera is tragic or five hours long. It’s not always full of overdressed snobs. You don’t have to know what’s happening in the story to enjoy it; the music can speak for itself. Operas were the musicals of their day and were entertaining for everyone.

Young people attend musicals in London by the thousands each year. They’re not cheap either. You can easily spend over £30 on an old show and even more  for the newer ones. In fact, in the UK only one in ten young people (aged 15 and over) said that they attended opera or ballet, whereas two-thirds of them attend musicals or the cinema.

It’s only when I play abroad that I see adults with their children in the audience, and that’s including my many outings to the free broadcasts. Why then as teenagers would they be expected to take a sudden interest in opera, had they never been exposed to it before? In the rest of Europe it’s part of their everyday culture and education. There are still of course the opening nights when tickets are expensive and everyone dresses up as that is part of the tradition too, but just a part.

The fact is, opera is not just for the elite, but we in the UK keep on believing in and fuelling that misconception. It’s not always going to be to everyone’s taste but if you like listening to opera then you should have no fear in attending a show. It’s funny that a country so proud and enthusiastic about Shakespeare feels shy about opera, especially as The Tempest contains an example of a Masque, the predecessor to opera. It’s only because people in England are accustomed to Shakespeare and have been educated about his life and plays from early on that they are comfortable with him. It could easily have been Puccini or Wagner if they were born and grew up on the continent.

We may need to take it upon ourselves, book the cheap tickets in advance and just go. If we don’t, then opera in the UK and Ireland really will become an art form for the elite, with the lack in demand for affordalble tickets such offers will cease to exist. The more people that go to outdoor broadcasts or opera festivals, the more of them there will be.

So if it’s not offered as part of your education, then it’s up to the individual to explore opera, get interested, and catch up with the rest of Europe. Take a leap, you may just find a new passion in life.