Oh For Christ's Sake!

This is just too much. Talk about pop-culture-inspired idiocy.

For opera fans: Singers in the buff.

Sex sells cars. But can it sell opera?

OperaModa executive director Genevieve Thiers hopes so. As part of her 3-year-old company's plan to change opera's image, its 2007 fundraiser calendar, "OperaModa Uncovered," will feature 12 months of famous opera heroines [in the buff].

"It's going to help get eyeballs on the opera world," says Thiers, who poses as Salome (a.k.a. Ms. October), title character from the Richard Strauss masterpiece.

"We've heard, like everyone else, that opera is dying. It's something that people associate with octogenarians. But we believe it can be made relevant to a young demographic," says Thiers, who received her master's degree in opera from Northwestern University.

RTW idiot T here.