Anne Midgette said in a Washington Post blog today: “Many of us who love music share a vague idea that audiences should be open to new things, and that they should be convinced to give them a try. But is this true? I’ve observed before that classical music, particularly opera companies and orchestras, are unusual in that they repeatedly try to force things on its audience that its audience doesn’t necessarily want.”

I imagine we might get further if we stopped focusing on WHAT is being performed and started worrying about the audience experience of it. Given the right (informal, educational, interactive, whatever) context, some audience members will try musical broccoli. And some won’t. And the Nutcracker will always sell out.