People are more likely to associate opera with horned helmets and tragic love than millennials and mixed drinks, but a new venture by the San Francisco Opera aims to flip that script. 

This Thursday, The Uptown Nightclub will host an SF Opera Lab pop-up, an immersive, interactive approach “that would be unusual for people who are long-time opera lovers and interesting for people who’ve never been to the opera before,” said Aria Umezawa, a 2017 Adler Fellow with the Opera.

In its second season, SF Opera Lab presents programs meant to engage novices by hosting “an informal evening that features opera, young singers, piano, and fun cocktails at a cool venue,” said Sean Waugh, SF Opera’s Artistic Planning Manager.

Waugh said the Lab is an initiative that’s meant to be “an experimental programming arm and an R&D space” for San Francisco Opera, founded in 1923. “We’re pushing ourselves outside of our comfort zone and utilizing new ways of thinking and experimentation to revolutionize the art form,” he added.

The pop-up at The Uptown is the organization’s first Oakland event, “but we we want to keep coming back, said Waugh. “The plan is to do more of these in the future in a way that we’re doing them more often and in other venues, whether it’s a music club, or a movie theater, or even an abandoned factory.”

Performing opera in unexpected places helps in “breaking down those barriers associated with opera and makes the artists the stars in the most informal and deconstructed way you can,” said Waugh.

Like Umezawa, Thursday’s singers are also 2017 Adler Fellows who are training and studying with SF Opera on a multi-year residency; all were selected from the Merola Opera Program, which develops young opera talent.

“The evening’s going to be a really great survey of opera,” said Umezawa, a Toronto-based director. “A little taste of every era and every style.” 

She added that the audience can expect to interact in unexpected ways with the performers, similar to attendees of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. After the performers conclude, a DJ will play a set.

“It’s going to be an unusual night, and hopefully an experience that people will remember,” said Umezawa.

SF Opera Lab Pop-up Oakland Edition is from 7:30 –11:30 at The Uptown Nightclub (1928 Telegraph Ave.) Tickets are $25; 21+ only.