Opera isn't to everyone's taste. Indeed classical music as a whole is seen as the domain of the older generation.But when the website operamadesimple.com polled some 3,000 Brits on their classical music knowledge, the results exposed some serious misconceptions.
The inhabitants of Blackpool betrayed their cultural interests, with more than half believing that opera is the name of an American chat show host, while the residents of Coventry didn't fare much better with one in four convinced that Beethoven was a dog.
On the slightly more bizarre side, one in 10 people from York thought Mozart was a footballer.
Still, Britain does have its classical favourites. Pavarotti, Charlotte Church and Katherine Jenkins were found to be the most popular opera stars (though one in five Bradford locals thought Pavarotti was Scottish).
The poll of 3,000 people also found that almost three quarters of Brits had never seen live opera.
One in three of those surveyed were worried that they wouldn't understand it and more than one in ten were concerned about what to wear.
Dean Cutbill, director for Yorkshire Bank, who sponsor Opera North, told the Telegraph: "Although it seems that Britain's knowledge of opera is quite small, we have found that opera does hold an iconic place in British culture, especially in football.
"We hope through operamadesimple.com more people will give live opera a go and discover all it has to offer."
Judging by the results of this survey, we're not holding our breath.
shopping spree
