Classical Crossover: Bad Move...or Step Forward?

Rock musicians who write operas aren't the only famous artists crossing musical boundaries these days--witness Renée Fleming's 2010 album Dark Hope, featuring the singer in indie hits from bands like Arcade Fire, Band of Horses and Death Cab for Cutie.

And many U.S. opera companies are crossing a boundary of sorts by programming more musicals.

In the season ahead, Houston Grand Opera is presenting A Little Night Music, San Francisco Opera is staging Show Boat and Lyric Opera of Chicago will perform The Sound of Music--something that would have been unheard of in the 1980s and early 90s.

Back then, musicians were expected to stick to their genre. Opera singers sang opera, and not musicals or, heaven forbid, pop music. Instrumentalists studied orchestral music or jazz and were expected to specialize.

Even a musician as talented as Wynton Marsalis, who achieved international success in both genres, eventually chose only one of those paths.

Classical artists who dabbled in music from other genres were accused of selling out, pandering or worse.

Today, the attitude seems to be different.

I attended a recital this spring featuring the young artists of the Castleton Festival, the summer festival founded by Lorin Maazel on his estate in Virginia. I heard singers perform opera arias in traditional operatic style and then sing songs from musicals, using a style of singing more suited to Broadway than the Met.

It seems that musical theater is simply another style these singers have at their disposal, and they can move effortlessly from one genre to the other.

But are classically trained musicians as effective when they sing music from other genres? These videos may help you decide.

This first one features Renée Fleming performing Muse's "Endlessly" from the Decca album Dark Hope.

And this second example--showing how operatic voices can sound in popular music--has singers Wayne Tigges and Rene Barbera jamming to Extreme's "More Than Words" backstage at the Santa Fe Opera last month (with Larry Brownlee and Joyce DiDonato joining in).