If you’re not up to speed on the Mobile Opera saga, I’ll catch you up. Jerome Shannon, who was their music director for ten years, was asked to step down. He’ll end his time in Spring, and an interim director, Hal France, will take his place.

France, was featured in a Q&A interview with Thomas Harrison in today’s arts pages. The entire interview is up on the web, readable here.

At the close of the interview, France starts talking about drawing in larger opera audiences. I was glad to read that he likes to see a younger, “less formal” audience. An excerpt:

I am encouraged when I see an audience with younger people in it, and it’s less formal; and I’m a fan of less formal. because I don’t see any point in continuing the formality if that’s not the way our world is going to be. You know, what’s the point?

Amen to that.