It’s a tragedy for Britain that opera is widely seen as elitist

There’s a long, proud history of workingclass opera in the UK. In the 1920s the impresario Lilian Baylis packed the poor of South London into the Old Vic to watch performances of Mozart and Verdi. The idea was to get them out of the pub, but it genuinely changed lives. Then there was the working-class operatic culture of the East End, where performances at the People’s Palace on the Mile End Road always sold out.

During the Depression, countless Welsh miners became opera singers: it was a whole lot better than being on the dole. And during the Second World War, Sadler’s Wells performed in factories, barracks and church halls, the length and breadth of the land. People were hungry for culture and it was something fun, and a bit different, to do.

It was all cheap, cheerful and often a bit slapdash. Glyndebourne, where Labour’s deputy leader, Angela Rayner, recently attended a performance, is none of these things. It is British opera’s most refined face, set in an idyllic location, known for smart dress and sumptuous picnics. It is, and always has been, elegant, musically excellent and, yes, expensive. Dominic Raab, the deputy Prime Minister, called Rayner a “champagne socialist” for going.

But let’s get this in perspective. Many activities cost a lot. West End tickets have reached jaw-droppingly exorbitant levels. At £62, Rayner paid less to go to Glyndebourne than she would have paid for topprice tickets to hear the Rolling Stones or Adele playing in Hyde Park this month.

Millions of people from all social classes have fallen in love with opera over the past century. But at the same time, it has always been mocked, characterised as too intellectual (although most opera isn’t) – and too foreign. Abroad, it is quite normal to see high-profile politicians at the opera. Angela Merkel is a regular at Bayreuth. It’s seen as a way of celebrating the nation’s culture.

Britain, on the other hand, is caught between philistine populism on the Right and a cultural relativism that shies away from anything “highbrow” on the Left. Today’s MPS keep their operatic leanings very quiet, for fear of being called that dreadful thing – an elitist. Going on Desert Island Discs? Better choose some tracks that seem cool.

Frankly we could do with more MPS who are willing to talk openly about enjoying opera, classical music, art, long novels or art-house films. These art forms are for everyone. Opera taps into universal themes about love, loss, death and, yes, politics. Take Puccini’s La bohème. We’ve all been young, poor and in love for the first time. And oh the irony of the fact that Rayner attended Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, about a woman of “low” origins outwitting a man of higher social class.

We have big problems with so-called high culture in the UK. Opera is simply less familiar nowadays. It’s no longer often taught in schools. It’s hardly ever on the television. (Contrast this with ITV putting it out at peak times in the 1970s.) We have let opera fall out of the mainstream cultural conversation. We have become nervous about it and that’s a great shame.

We should judge our MPS on their policies and their actions, not on hobbies and interests they pursue in their leisure time. I hope that Rayner will go to more operas. Perhaps, next time, she could take Raab along too. They would probably have a great night out.