Opera company back in a flash

Maren Montalbano, 36, took a seat in the food court Saturday, attempting to blend into the Reading Terminal Market lunch crowd.

She realized that a mob was already gathering. She could see people starting to deploy their cell-phone cameras, aware that something unusual was going to happen. At noon, the mezzo-soprano rose from her chair and broke into an aria from Carmen with 38 other singers from the Opera Company of Philadelphia.

All had been posing as ordinary shoppers. Some carried drinks or baguettes as they belted out the familiar chorus: "Tor-e-ador, tor-e-ador." One of the soloists performed in a sweat suit.

Montalbano said she had sung part of the song directly to a woman who happened by while shopping. "Afterwards she told me she loved opera," she said.

The unannounced public performance followed two "flash operas" the company had pulled off last year. In October, 650 singers mingled with Macy's shoppers while performing the "Hallelujah Chorus" from Handel's Messiah.

While these events were partly inspired by a public performance at a market in Spain, Philadelphia's opera company was the first to make this phenomenon go "viral," the Internet videos seen by millions of people.

So far, the Macy's event has generated more than 6.9 million views on YouTube, while an earlier event at Reading Terminal Market has had more than three million views.

While the flash events are meant to surprise shoppers, some singers have been surprised back, never expecting their faces to be seen by millions around the world.

Some see a shift in the relationship between opera and its audience - a democratization of opera as singers learn to perform among people rather than in front of them.

And thanks to YouTube, an art form sometimes seen as rarefied and expensive is reaching the masses.

Montalbano said people now recognized her from the Macy's flash opera. She showed up prominently in the video, laughing in surprise when a shopper standing nearby joined in the chorus.

Montalbano said she had sent the video to a few friends and relatives. "I didn't think it would go further than that."

Fellow flash-opera singer Toffer Mihalka, 34, said it was a strange kind of fame.

"Someone stopped me on the subway in New York the other day and asked if I was the guy in the video," he said.

Both performers said they had gotten e-mail from long-lost acquaintances complimenting them on their performances.

The YouTube and flash phenomena seem to be working in tandem to change opera's relationship with listeners.

"Normally all we see are reflections off people's glasses in the audience," said Mihalka. On Saturday, they sang to people standing inches away.

"People sometimes think it's this hoity-toity thing that only rich people see," Montalbano said.

The idea was originated by the opera company's director of community programs, Michael Bolton. It started last year, he said, when Reading Terminal Market asked for some way the company could participate in its Italian festival.

Bolton said some singers had expressed fears about their first flash performance. Would people like them or laugh at them? To their relief, people laughed, but with delight.

That led to the October Messiah flash opera at Macy's - and the video that surprised them all as it made its meteoric rise.

"It was hard to get any work done for a while" as the number of views rose, Bolton said.

The opera company also got a grant from the Knight Foundation - $30,000 to pay the singers. Bolton said he was thinking up the next flash-type event, which may bring in dancers or other artists and would probably take place in a different venue.

The jaunty "Toreador Song" was over in less then five minutes. And almost instantly, the cell-phone cameras were shut off and the crowd went back to the business of getting something for lunch.