None of my friends and loved ones in the greater DC area want to see Salome with on Friday night.

It doesn’t matter that the production has been well reviewed, nor that Deborah Voigt (a soprano famous for her work in Strauss’ repertoire) would be singing.

And so I embark on another “what the heck happened to respect for the canon” discussion.

The last two young ladies to attend the opera with me are both, as it happens, going to Baltimore to see comedian Chelsea Handler. I brought up the question of the opera with a couple of friends last night and got some blank stares. Zero interest.

I have to believe that if more people gave opera – live opera, done properly – a chance, it would continue to grow. And maybe it is. Everything I’m complaining about is purely anecdotal. I do not hang around an “operatic” crowd. In truth, I work with a punk rock crowd. My better half works with folks on the pop culture side of things. I stand in a lonely middle. Or am I just romanticizing myself – making someone who is able to buy a subscription to the opera a classic, lonely, rugged and byronic outsider?