On Sunday afternoon, we turned the theatre over to our studio singers, fellows and interns.  75 minutes of scenes from 7 operas in 4 languages were sung, played, supertitled, and stage-managed by folks whose average age couldn’t have topped 23.  The rest of us cheered, enjoyed, and did the best we could at house management.  Even a 3:10pm severe thunderstorm that wreaked havoc with the light board and supertitle projectors didn’t faze these folks.

It’s the first time we held this event (which itself is a mere 3 years old) at The Barns, our small-but-mighty mainstage.   It was an experiment that paid great dividends, and we will be seeking to replicate it and improve on it in future seasons.  I came away with lots of food for thought, some of which I didn’t bargain on.

I’ve been puzzling out the dramatically different vibe that was present in the house that afternoon. On one hand, it shouldn’t have been a surprise.  The audience comprised mostly friends/family of the performers and a wide range of Wolf Trap donors.  They were predisposed to wish us well.  Admission was free, which also doesn’t hurt the frame of mind.  I knew all of this, but the overwhelmingly relaxed, open, dare-I-say-happy groove that pervaded the afternoon was somehow shocking.

There are folks who do enjoy their time at the opera, no doubt, but at a typical show in a typical house, we don’t usually hear from them.  We are more aware of their discontent fellow patrons, with an inner monologue of…. this-better-be-worth-the-money… I-went-through-rush-hour-hell-to-get-here… I-don’t-like-my-seats… I-hate-this-director/conductor/singer.  You get the idea, and I’m sure you can fill in some of your own.

So why, for a program of scenes with no orchestra, no sets and no costumes, were people seemingly more willing to relax and try to have a good time?  Is it all about the free ticket? Is it about low expectations being exceeded?  Is it bundled up with a personal connection to the artists and/or the organization?  Is it that the ticketed performance is a business transaction with a complicated return-on-investment mindset?

I’ll never know, but it is my mission to bottle some of it and figure out how to embed it in every show we do.

Each of our four Zaide audiences chose their own ending to Mozart’s unfinished opera.

By the Numbers

For the statisticians out there, overall voter turnout was 90%.  And of the three available endings, audiences chose:

• ENLIGHTENMENT (simple, happy ending) won twice and received 35% of the total vote over all performances.
• FINALITY (tragic ending) won once and received 34% of the total vote over all performances.
• DISCOVERY (“complicated” ending) won once and received 31% of the total vote over all performances.

Audience Psychology?

It seems that the weekend audiences preferred happy endings with their opera.  The opening night crowd was more adventurous than the others.  And the Tuesday night audience (who fought their way here through a nasty rush hour and sold-out traffic for the Harry Connick show down the road) -well, let’s just say they were a little more bloodthirsty.

The Takeaway

There are many real things here to be learned about audience engagement, but I don’t really know what they all are.  Suffice to say that this little experiment bore far more fruit than we ever expected when we backed into it.

Thanks to all who came along for the ride. with a special shout-out to Club 66 at Wolf Trap, members of which attended the closing night show with young professionals from Washington National Opera’s Generation O.

4 shows, starting tomorrow night.  Sunday 6/13 is sold out, but some tickets are available for tomorrow’s opening night, and for Tuesday 6/15 and Saturday 6/19.

Gallery of dress rehearsal photos coming shortly.

Wolf Trap Lets Audience Choose Ending to Mozart’s Unfinished Opera

The Washington Post previews our new production of Zaide, which opens our 2010 summer season this weekend! Click Here.

Life’s a Pitch just finished a week hosting a virtual panel on when and how artists, managers, journalists, presenters and publicists single out musicians for being “special” in their promotion and career-building efforts.  Amanda’s summary of the posts by her 4 guest bloggers is here.

I hesitate to spend most of an entire blog post regurgitating other writers’ material, but this is worth it.  Great food for thought for musicians, presenters, and music lovers of all stripes.  If you need more motivation to click through, some highlights:

Jonathan Biss (our Wolf Trap Debut Artist from 1997!) writes that “Traditionalism is big in classical music, of course, meaning that there’s a lot of knee-jerk “this is the way to do it because this is the way it’s always been done.” (“It” could be any number of things – from questions of musical style, to programming, to concert attire, and on and on.)  But recently I’ve heard a lot of the marketing-driven opposite, which seems equally knee-jerk to me: “this has never been done before, and therefore it is relevant and interesting.”"

Michael Kondziolka at University Musical Society in Ann Arbor, Michigan says that “yes, hooks are fine and human interest angles (sometimes) riveting…but, never a substitute for convincing music making that reveals some truth or provocation embedded within, some kind of technical accomplishment, or, maybe, some hint at a shared humanity… Actually, the more I think about it, if one can be certain that the players will hit the accomplishment quotient, then human interest hooks are actually welcome in my book.  And we shouldn’t be afraid of them or feel that they somehow cheapen the artist’s integrity.  (Please.)  Any information sharing or story telling that aids, abets, or heightens a sense of empathy between performer and listener – whether artistic, human, spiritual – has to be a good thing.  Right?  Live concert performances must, after all, traffic in empathy.”

Matthew Guerrieri of Soho the Dog weighs in: “On the other hand, I personally find assertions of specialness within the concert presentation itself–spoken explanations, multimedia elements, &c.–to be often more annoying and distracting than anything. I’ve seen it done well, but only rarely; it’s harder than it looks, and it takes just as much (if not more) preparation as the music. If there’s absolute commitment on the part of the performer(s), if they really believe in whatever high concept they’ve come up with, I can happily go along for the ride, even if, in the end, I don’t quite buy it.”

So, in thinking of ways to describe, promote and create enthusiasm about our upcoming season, I found this. And I’m of a million different minds about it.

And, as we address the thorny topic of ticket prices, it’s serendipitous to find one of my favorite podcasts discussing the Psychology of Pricing.  Unfortunately, our thinking has to go far beyond this discussion.  We have obligations not only to our bottom line, but to our donors, our current and potential patrons, and to our art form.  Raise prices to attempt to keep pace with expenses?  Hold the line in sympathy with the economic challenges of patrons?  Cut deep and low to eliminate obstacles in expanding the audience base?  Yes, yes, and yes?  Hmmm.

January is WTOC Alumni Month!

I was doing some surfing to see what our summer festival colleagues are offering for 2010, and I came across a performance of the suite from Candide with WTOC alums Anna Christy and Nick Phan.  Ravinia also features former Trappers Nathan Gunn and Lauren McNeese in Figaro, and Tanglewood’s roster includes Stephanie Blythe (Mahler #2), Dawn Upshaw, and Morris Robinson (Mozart’s Abduction).

I’m back at my desk after a miraculously restful 11 days away from work.  (Thank, you Wolf Trap Foundation, for the immensely sane and merciful act of shutting down between Christmas and New Year’s!)   By last night, I was calm, centered, and full of hope and energy for a fresh start.  This morning, just a few hours chipping away at the mountain of pre-season tasks has rendered me slightly panicked.  (I completely forget to breathe when I’m at my desk. Does that happen to anyone else?  What’s that about?!?)

It didn’t help that I spent my lunch break digging through the NEA’s 2008 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts.  (Go ahead, click through, but not on an empty stomach.)  I don’t believe that the sky is falling, but this news is complicated.  We’re embarking on a new business plan for 2011-2015, and I’m trying to spend more time than usual wrestling with these facts and figures.

As we move out of the audition season, I welcome back my casual readers whose eyes glazed over while reading endless aria lists and other technical jargon.  Over these next few months, the focus will be slightly broader and more varied.  There will be another Met audition trip (North Carolina) and a trip to LA (for the GRAMMYs!), and I keep posts short to give you more time to keep those New Year’s resolutions.

January is WTOC Alumni Month!

A shout-out to WTOC alum Michael Maniaci and his new recording of Mozart Arias – releasing in a few weeks and available now for pre-order.  (Do it – you won’t be sorry!)  Michael sang Nero in Poppea and the title role in Xerxes at Wolf Trap, and he is a truly amazing artist.

I’m hoping to dig myself out of a personal and professional backlog for the next week or two, without the adrenaline that has shepherded me through the last weeks. Wish me luck. I plan to be back by the end of August with a clear mind, posting some wrap-up thoughts on the season and the upcoming fall auditions. (Audition applications and web pages should be ready within a week.)

In the meantime, enjoy these Boheme performance photos by Carol Pratt.

Stephen Lord, conductor
Kevin Newbury, director
S. Katy Tucker, video projection design
Cameron Anderson, scenic design
Jessica Jahn, costume design
Mark Stanley, lighting design
Elsen Associates, hair/makeup design

Diego Torre, Rodolfo
Hana Park, Mimi
Ava Pine, Musetta
Daniel Billings, Marcello
Matthew Hanscom, Schaunard
Carlos Monzón, Colline
Nicholas Masters, Benoit/Alcindoro