Sequence are very pleased this week to launch an online collaboration between two of our oldest clients who have always made the most of the Internet to communicate to their audiences and promote themselves. Welsh National Opera (WNO) and leading UK law firm Hugh James Solicitors have joined together to produce this straight-talking, no nonsense guide for the first-time opera-goer– now live on www.fresh2opera.com.

The partnership has received a New Partners Investment from Arts & Business (www.aandb.org.uk), the world's most successful and widespread creative network. Fresh2opera is a website stripping opera down to its bare essentials – its aimed at people who enjoy listening to opera on films and TV, or even at the beginning of the football, but who have never taken that step further to actually go to one. It's objective is to challenge the idea that a) opera is "not for people like you" b) "you'd have nothing to wear" or c) "you wouldn't understand it. "

Fresh2opera unpacks all the elements leading up to a user's first performance and beyond, such as which opera should be your first choice. To help people make a decision, fresh2opera offers a helping hand by:

• Offering a guide to the top 10 most popular operas.
• Giving users a chance to read jargon-free plot summaries.
• easy access to listen to clips on-line, which may show that people know more opera than they think they did.

Once a visitor has chosen their first production there are handy tips such as how much they should expect to pay, why opera is easy to understand even when sung in a foreign language, the dress code and when they should applaud. The website even carries on helping once the curtain has gone down with a glossary of terms, 'juicy bitz' trivia and suggestions of where to find out more.

WNO has been, since its beginning, a company which has worked hard to bring new audiences to opera in every part of the country in which it performs. In recent years the Company's WNO MAX initiative has put this work at the heart of WNO, be it through projects targeted at young people, disenfranchised communities, or through specific audience development initiatives such as the forthcoming show, Chorus!. Offering people who have not yet tried opera the chance to see a taster concert of the best loved operatic choruses, Chorus! will be performed by the world-class Chorus and Orchestra of Welsh National Opera and supported by Classic FM.

Lucy Shorrocks, Marketing Director, WNO says: 'Fresh2opera is all about taking a fresh approach to reach new people. There is an enormous amount of information on the internet about opera – but very little aimed at people who are new to opera and are keen to find out more. WNO does everything it can to break down the experience of going to an opera to make sure everyone feels they would be comfortable going for the first time. Fresh2opera manages to strike a really good balance between being really informative and being great fun.'

Simon King of Hugh James says, 'Fresh2opera is an innovative approach to bringing opera to a wider audience and creating a different "take" on the whole new opera experience. Hugh James is delighted to sponsor such an initiative that delivers such a vibrant information resource that will bring opera 'alive' to everyone. This initiative is reflective of the true partnership ethos that has developed between Welsh National Opera and Hugh James, where innovative projects are continually planned and implemented. We are confident that such a fruitful relationship will continue to grow and bring further success through partnership to both organisations".