Paul Potts: Hero of opera

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Arts organizations are always talking about how to cultivate new audiences. A tried-and-true one has been the Theory of Exposure: Get the art in front of people, especially youngsters, and they will acquire a taste for the art.

That kind of thinking has been around at least since The Muppet Show first aired in the late 1970s. Opera advocates rejoiced when Beverly Sills starred on the variety show. They predicted a new generation of opera lovers (and, more importantly, opera patrons) who would be inspired by Sills’ powerful performance and magnetic personality.

The same went for the other art forms: jazz (when Dizzy Gillespie and Lena Horne were each guests), musical theater (Liza Minnelli, Zero Mostel), ballet (Rudolf Nureyev), and classical music (Liberace).

Well, maybe not Liberace (too many sequins, too much lowbrow appeal, some might say), but you get the point.

Anyway, for those concerned about high art’s losing cultural authority to the increasing dominance of popular entertainment, the thinking was: If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.

Now comes Paul Potts.

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