Opera boss accused of playing to ‘cool crowd’

The Royal Opera House's chief executive Tony Hall is under fire for dumbing down the Covent Garden programme in its 150th year by attempting to reach out to a new "cool crowd" of 30-somethings. Opera magazine has attacked Hall, the former head of BBC news who came to the ROH in 2001, for using Tesco's favourite market research company to try to lure younger audiences.

Hall is quoted as saying: "We want to get that buzzy, cool crowd to come in." Opera editor John Allison derided the 62-year-old Hall for showing the "classic signs of a midlife crisis and going to unseemly lengths to get younger flesh on its seats". He added: "Quite apart from the sad spectacle of a 50-something deciding that 30 is the height of cool, Hall is demonstrating a more fundamental crisis of confidence and a lack of belief in the art forms his institution should be serving."

Allison's main beef is that the same marketing consultancy used for Tesco Clubcard customers, Dunnhumby, is being employed to help devise a programme of events for the Royal Opera House. "In direct response to these supermarket whizzes,” said Allison, "the Opera House is putting on a three-day festival featuring 'the coolest names in town'." These include Julian Opie, who illustrated a Blur album cover; Scanner, a conceptual artist; and the performance group, Blast Theory, who will be organising digital games.

Max Loppert, a former Financial Times opera critic, has also attacked the marketing strategy. He told the Daily Telegraph how he was shocked to find an opera schedule featuring a photograph of the ROH music director Antonio Pappano. Adorning the photo was the line: 'ELEMENTAL FORCE. Meet Tony. One Of The Most Electric Men In Opera'.