Opera is the new pop, says music promoter Rick Blaskey, who is doing his bit to bring it to the mainstream market.

Mr Blaskey, who has worked with singers such as Katherine Jenkins and Russell Watson, has produced A Night At The Opera.

The show, a collaboration of some of opera’s greatest hits, has been touring the UK, most recently at the London Palladium.

It features established performers, including Jonathan Ansell of G4, Italian actress Silvia Colloca and, closer to home, tenor Telman Guzhevsky, who is regularly to be heard in the choir at St John’s Wood Synagogue, North London. “The show is for people like me, who cannot sit through two hours of opera to hear just two good songs,” Mr Blaskey, who has been working on the show for the past two years, tells People.

“It’s basically opera’s best hits in one show.

“I realised that the mass market loves it, so why not put it on the stage? It is no longer a marginalised genre; opera stars are now selling equal numbers of records as their pop contemporaries. This show is something that has never been attempted before.”

Mr Blaskey lives in Hampstead, North London.