Classical Appeal; From London's Savoy Opera to Singapore's Esplanade, classical music is enjoying a widespread renaissance.

Byline: Tara Pepper, With Alexandra A. Seno in Hong Kong, Stefan Theil in Berlin and Alison Brooks in Paris

Near the gaudy banners advertising "The Lion King" and "Mamma Mia" in London's West End, a new billboard recently heralded a small musical revolution. In this epicenter of middlebrow entertainment, the world's first commercial opera company, the Savoy Opera, is staging works by Mozart and Rossini, more usually heard at the rarified Royal Opera House. The Savoy's goal is ambitious, putting on performances of such operas as "The Marriage of Figaro" eight times a week, 10 months a year, for an audience more accustomed to musicals. "Opera shouldn't be special; it should be just another form of entertainment," says the company's cofounder, Raymond Gubbay. The early signs are promising. Last week a near-capacity audience laughed gamely at Darren Jeffery's gruff Figaro and admired witty Susanna, sung by Tamsin Coombs. Most important, they navigated the twists of Beaumarchais's labyrinthine plot through comprehensible English lyrics, all part of Gubbay's grand plan to demystify opera.

Sidelined for years, with a market share tumbling from marginal to microscopic, classical music is enjoying a widespread renaissance. The Savoy is just the latest sign. In Britain, sales of classical CDs were up 8 percent last year, against a global downturn of more than 7 percent for all musical genres. Best-selling albums like Hayley Westenra's "Pure," and "Bryn" by opera heavyweight Bryn Terfel, made it onto the pop top-10 lists. The BBC more than tripled its classical-music programming, from 98 hours in 2000 to 368 this year. Even reality TV got a dose of high culture: in France, "Orpheus: Behind the Scenes in the Underworld" filmed 21 music graduates for 12 weeks while they rehearsed Monteverdi's 17th-century masterpiece; Britain's "Operatunity" saw would-be stars compete to sing with the English National Opera.

The surge is not just confined to Europe. New concert halls are springing up across Asia--including the glitzy $340 million Esplanade in Singapore. In the United States, the $274 million Frank Gehry- designed Walt Disney concert hall opened in L.A. last October, and earlier this month New York announced plans for a $575 million refurbishment of Lincoln Center--the first phase of an ambitious redevelopment.

What's driving this new vogue? Pianist Susan Tomes, who recently published "Beyond the Notes," reflections on 20 years of concerts with the Florestan Trio, says it stems from a growing desire for something more substantive. "I get the impression that people are looking for something that makes sense of their feelings and thoughts, and they're not finding it in pop," she says. It helps that classical music is more accessible than ever--in commercials, on TV and at the movies. Classic FM, which now claims 75 percent of Britain's commercial radio audience, draws in listeners through a magazine, Web site, TV channel and partnerships with other orchestras , as well as through their radio shows, books and CDs.

With the sales of other genres tumbling, classical is a potential gold mine. Record-industry execs are busy dreaming up creative new ways to woo wealthy baby boomers who don't download and are unsatisfied by pop. One popular method involves dotting light, accessible songs among more traditional works to entice listeners into less familiar classical territory. On one of his albums, Bryn Terfel included "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" among works by Bizet and Schubert. Labels are also playing up their singers' personalities, promoting pretty, charismatic stars like Westenra and cultivating accomplished soprano Anna Netrebko as an opera siren. And they're helping singers develop their own vision, luring listeners with highbrow "concept albums." Pianist Helene Grimaud won plaudits for her recent compilation "Credo," an eclectic mix of ...