Yesterday I met with Tapestry Opera Artistic Director Michael Mori to ask him about their upcoming how Tap:Ex Tables Turned.  What follows is an attempt to distill an hour and three quarters of wide ranging conversation into something readable without, I hope, distorting what Michael actually said too much.

We started by talking about “How on Earth he came up with the idea?”.  There a few key themes here.  First, Tap:Ex is about exploration and experimentation with new forms of performance practice.  This is rooted in Michael’s belief that “opera is inherently a popular genre” and that the task is to find a way of doing “it” that connects with a modern audience.  He firmly believes that the audience for beautifully sung spectacle in a large opulent theatre is inherently limited and that we need to find ways to connect new audiences probably through different ways of presenting work (he mentioned choreography for example) and by using more intimate, less intimidating venues.  He cited Philadelphia’s willingness to take risks with second stages versus the compararive lack of success of companies that had tried to experiment in a large house.  He also quoted statistics that suggested that the “new audience” problem is less to do with getting people to the opera once but much more about how to get them to come back for a second and subsequent time.

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