Crossover

I have been involved in my fair share of crossover music over the years - some of it good - Georghe Zamfir playing Bartok on the panpipes, some of it reasonable - Judy Collins singing "Jerusalem" and some of it, a Little dodgy.

As composer of the Champion's League anthem, which crosses over fairly firmly with Handel, I have been responsible for the on pitch musical entertainment at several European Cup finals. The Opera Babes had their first outing in Munich some years ago, standing in the middle of the pitch and puzzling the fans, who had no idea what they were doing there. Then there was the final between Bayern Munich and Valencia at Milan's mighty San Siro ground. the whole event was opera themed and various "crossover" artists performed to a completely indifferent crowd who were only there for the football. Various UEFA bigwigs were urging me to cancel the big event and as the entire chorus of La Scala Milan filed on to the pitch to sing, unaccompanied Verdi's "Va Pensiero" I confess my heart was in my boots. Eighty thousand rabid German and Spanish fans started to calm down and with the exception of some Leder hosen louts, who were hushed by the rest of the crowd, the choir performed to virtual silence and tumultuous applause.

Crossover? - not a bit of it, just great music doing its thing. Last night's Harvey Goldsmith tutorial on channel four was just the opposite - a small opera company desperately trying to make its mark by coming up with - "Arias on Ice". Enough said, what will be next? Concerto's in caves? Symphonies in swimming pools? I'm not a snob, by all means lets have crossover - I've done very nicely out of it, but let's not get to the point of forever patronising the audience - it doesn't give them a chance.