Take scenes from some of the most beautiful/artistic Asian martial-artsy films shot in recent years (“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” “Hero,” etc.) Add the composer who wrote the memorable soundtracks. Have him conduct the National Symphony Orchestra while it plays the music to those films as stunning clips are shown on giant overhead screens. Stage the performance at Wolf Trap on an utterly, utterly perfect summer night. That’s a prescription for a huge crowd, right?

Apparently not. I’d tag the crowd who came out to see Tan Dun on Friday night at a thousand or so, with more than half of the audience sitting on the lawn. Me, I bought these stunning box seats the night before the concert, when the NSO sent me a half-price offer. They cost all of $22 each. You can’t even get into the Birchmere for that kind of money any more.

Last week, we saw “Casablanca” staged in a similar way to a nearly sold-out crowd, including people sitting at hopeless, guaranteed-to-see-nothing angles up on the lawn. The music, while strong, wasn’t nearly as challenging or interesting as Friday’s performance (which was filled with every kind of drum imaginable, along with Western instruments that were tuned to make them sound more like their Chinese kin). And “Casablanca” is, of course, an old black-and-white film; although some of the framing and angles in the film are deservedly legendary, the martial arts films are like watching Technicolor dreams in motion.

It’s too bad Washington won’t support this kind of effort (and I’m no saint here; without the half-price tickets, I wouldn’t have gone). I gripe about Wolf Trap because it seems like the same old warhorses trot the same old acts out to the same old audience there every year. But the audience attends those performances. If people want something different, they have to back it up by showing up.