Poster Food trucks in downtown Minneapolis
Food trucks, shown here in Minneapolis, have gained popularity in many communities. Portland Opera is seeking to build on that culture to share its music with a wider audience.
Jennifer Simonson | MPR News

Portland Opera takes the show on the road

Portland Opera, like many opera companies, was looking for a way to make opera more accessible to a wider audience, so it looked to the hospitality industry for inspiration.

Taking note of the popularity of the city's food carts — called, alternately, "food trucks" or "food vans" depending where you live — the Portland, Ore., based opera company created a mobile performance venue to reach people on the streets and on the parks, as classical host Jeff Esworthy discovered in this article in The Oregonian. Portland Opera has dubbed this mobile stage "Opera a la Cart."

Clare Burovac, Portland Opera's director of artistic operations, tells The Oregonian's Amy Wang the effort was about demystifying opera:

"Many people either are stymied by the barriers of actually going downtown," where the opera performs, "or they think that opera maybe is elitist or it's not for them," Burovac said. To counter those notions, "we thought we'd model an outreach project after the food cart culture."

Burovac says the Opera a la Cart repertoire consists largely of operatic pieces a lot of people will recognize regardless of any formal exposure to the form. Many opera pieces gain pop-culture traction through their inclusion in widely distributed films, television shows and cartoons.

Performances are scheduled in area parks during the weekend of July 30 and 31. The complete Opera a la Cart schedule is posted on the Portland Opera's website.

The Oregonian captured this recent Opera a la Cart performance as an example of what Portlanders may soon hear in the streets and parks in their community.

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