On a Thursday evening late last month, 115 people arrived at the Sheraton in downtown Raleigh for dinner and a speech. They weren't there for an annual meeting or political fundraiser. The attendees had come to learn about opera.

The program, the first of six in a series called "A Taste of Opera," was organized by the Opera Company of North Carolina's general manager, Frank Grebowski, as part of his plans to demystify opera. With three full productions and a concert of highlights on this season's schedule, Grebowski hopes these talks will turn attendees into ticket buyers.

Among those paying $25 a plate at "Understanding Italian Opera" was a man employed by an Italian company who had heard a lot about opera at work but had little exposure. A married couple had seen OCNC's "Carmen" in 2001 and Luciano Pavarotti's Raleigh concert a year later, but had ventured nothing else. Two women friends, who often go to opera and musical theater together, figured the talk would help them learn more.

Tenor John Fowler, star of OCNC's recent "La Bohème," was tapped for the first talk. His humorous anecdotes about working at the Met, jokes about opera stereotypes, and impromptu snatches of singing helped humanize opera even more than the tidbits of opera categories and voice types he dispensed.

The second dinner and talk held two weeks later brought in 170 people. Having Grant Llewellyn, the N.C. Symphony's charismatic music director, as speaker certainly helped fill the room (his name drew oohs and ahs when announced at the first talk). Still, that many paying guests for an evening billed as "The Story of Figaro" is unusual, given that most opera companies offer free preperformance talks at their productions.

This is music to Grebowski's ears, as his company prepares for its first production of the season, Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro," playing three consecutive nights beginning Thursday. This first-time collaboration with the N.C. Symphony will be semistaged in Meymandi Concert Hall, with Llewellyn conducting his first opera locally and an experienced cast boasting credits from Chicago Lyric and New York City Opera.

"It was a brilliant stroke for Frank to envision how to make this work for both organizations," says David Chambless Worters, the symphony's president and CEO. "I'm extremely enthusiastic about the project."

Start on a high note

The opera company closed the 2006-07 season on a high note with April's production of "La Bohème." The audience of 4,000 was the largest in the company's 11-year history.

Puccini's popular tearjerker usually guarantees a sizable crowd, but Grebowski also attributes the high numbers to the "Opera About Town" events that preceded the production. These free programs included open rehearsals, preview performances in libraries and malls, and highlights sung on Fayetteville Street, where the company moved its offices in December.

For the past two weeks, the company has offered a similar round of events for "The Marriage of Figaro." The final event takes place at 1 p.m. today in Moore Square, where members of the opera company and the N.C. Symphony perform as part of the SparkCon festival of arts and ideas.

Grebowski first applied his outreach ideas to promoting "Barber of Seville" in June 2006. Originally he was hired on a three-week contract to bolster sales for the production, but public response to his opening up of rehearsals and his series of highlights programs in the Cameron Village Library led the company's board to offer him the job of general manager.

"Frank is an endless font of ideas," says OCNC board chairman Steven Levitas. "His efforts to make opera more comfortable and informal have led to a dramatic transformation in the way the company markets its product."

With an undergraduate engineering degree from Duke University and a master's in management from MIT, Grebowski might seem an odd choice to run an opera company. It's certainly not where he thought he'd end up.

"I credit my three daughters for my career change," Grebowski says. "My jobs in the business development world were not fulfilling. I began participating in the arts as a way to get some balance in my life and to spend time with my daughters."

With them, he learned to play stringed instruments, participated in theater productions at their summer camps, and worked on community outreach for their school orchestra. In time he struck out on his own, volunteering for the symphony and opera in Chattanooga, Tenn., as a greeter, a bartender and ultimately a supernumerary (as a Spanish guardsman) in a production of the opera "Fidelio."

"One day my daughters asked me to think of what my dream job would be," Grebowski remembers. "I came to realize I wanted to be in arts management." His determination to fulfill the dream landed him in Raleigh. "I think I'm well-qualified for the job of getting people interested in opera, because I was new to it myself just a short time ago. I got the chance to see it from the inside and now I know that's the way to get others involved."

Others reach out, too

All opera companies are seeking additional ways to make opera more accessible. Chapel Hill's Long Leaf Opera promotes a casual atmosphere for its productions.

"We market our performances as ones you don't have to dress up for -- no coat and tie," says Jim Schaeffer, the company's executive director. "We don't want people to feel intimidated." Even the Met is beaming live performances to local movies theaters, where popcorn and Puccini can coexist.

Grebowski keeps in touch with North Carolina's other opera companies to seek additional ideas and collaborations. He has extended OCNC's season by entering into a cooperative production with Asheville Lyric Opera, Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor," slated for January. The company then produces its own evening of Italian opera highlights in April and closes the season in June with another Puccini crowd-pleaser, "Madama Butterfly." Talks, open rehearsals and performances in public areas also precede these three.

Opera is the most expensive of the performing arts. To stay in the black is a constant struggle, so Grebowski knows he must continue proselytizing for converts and supporters.

"Our goal is to make opera visible and accessible to as many people as possible, of all demographics, and we'll do whatever it takes to reach them."

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