Imagine Glee but with students bursting into opera arias and art songs to express themselves instead of show tunes and top 40 hits.
In The Classroom, which revolves around a group of university students falling in and out of love, is a charming way to try and make western opera more accessible to modern audiences. This no-frills, one-night-only performance may be comparable to a school play in terms of production values but that actually becomes part of the show's aw-shucks appeal. In The Classroom is after all a production with few pretensions. It is clearly happy to be entertaining in a broad Channel-5-sitcom way - and does indeed have enough farcical set-ups, embarrassing pratfalls and shameless gurning to keep the audience smiling throughout.
But really, the romantic comedy shenanigans are just the sponge of the trifle. The real treat is the vocal performances of the young cast. Actors who appear awkward saying lines suddenly come to life when belting out classics by the likes of Mozart, Donizetti and Bizet. Song after song, their voices fill the space, successfully evoking emotions of desire and longing.
New Opera Singapore's aims are to extend the reach of western opera, and to encourage and showcase new opera talents and enthusiasts in Singapore where the art form has pretty much been singularly defined by the Singapore Lyric Opera. This is a heartening first step.