If you ask Game of Thrones fans, they might say that the show, with all its shifts in power, sudden murders, and heartbreaking romances, is exactly like a soap opera. But apparently it’s got just as much in common with classical opera.

“The show has all the drama, intrigue, and passion that operas have been providing us for centuries: seduction, obsession, deception, political manoeuvring, romance, heartbreak, incest – to name a few,” says Sung Jin Hong, artistic director and composer conductor of One World Symphony, a New York City-based company dedicated to “adventurous” programming.

Hong selected Game of Thrones as one of three modern television programmes for One World Symphony’s “Operasodes season”, which was announced on Wednesday. An “Operasode” is a term Hong coined to describe an evening of previously written musical works, both classical and contemporary, inspired by a certain television programme’s themes and characters.

Fox comedy New Girl and Game of Thrones will both serve as inspirations for a programme of music that will be performed at Holy Apostles Church in New York’s Chelsea neighbourhood in October and February, respectively. These two TV-inspired nights lead up to the premiere of Hong’s original opera Hannibal later in 2015. It is based not on the Carthaginian conqueror but the serial killer who stars in Silence of the Lambs and the current NBC hit drama bearing his name.

At the Game of Thrones programme, which is scheduled for 1 and 2 February 2015, attendees will hear everything from Wagner (of course), Mozart and Igor Stravinsky to Annie Lennox’s Oscar-winning song Into the West from Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. The New Girl night focuses equally on modern and classical compositions so that Björk, Katy Perry and even Zooey Deschanel’s own music will fit next to Mozart, Puccini and Strauss. It is scheduled for 26 and 27 October.

“People fell in love and acted silly 200 years ago, and they probably did the same silly things we do now,” Hong says about the New Girl programme. “Today we write pop songs, hip-hop, rap. Back then they wrote arias, symphonies, operas.”

Hong says that the idea of these opera-television mashups came from thinking about the cronut, the love-child of a donut and croissant that was a culinary fad in New York a year ago. “The success of cronuts teach us that hybrids … have more than a fighting chance to survive and thrive,” he says. This is especially true in a world where most people would rather spend 16 hours watching the new season of House of Cards than Wagner’s Ring Cycle.

But using television to draw in new opera fans is a strategy that’s worked for One World Symphony in the past. In January it premiered Hong’s Breaking Bad – Ozymandias, based on the wildly popular AMC show and the Shelley poem that gave its name to one of the series’ greatest episodes. “The original concept was a 10-minute mini-opera, but since I was so invested in the TV show, it grew into a 50-minute music drama,” Hong says. It was one of the company’s two most popular performances in its 13-year history and was brought back for an encore performance this May. As Jesse Pinkman might say, “Opera, bitches”.

Opera dipping into pop culture as a way to stay vital is a trend that’s gaining speed. The New York City Opera debuted the Anna Nicole Smith opera in America last fall to fanfare usually reserved for a Kardashian fragrance launch. A Brokeback Mountain opera debuted in Spain earlier this year as well and though it was nominally based on the same short story as the movie rather than the film itself, it’s thanks to the movie’s success that it got as many headlines as it did.

While Game of Thrones and New Girl just serve as inspiration for selecting symphonic works, Hannibal will be an original opera that Hong is currently in the middle of composing. “[Hannibal’s] psychological profile is perfect for a dark opera,” Hong says. “We are beguiled by him. He is a character whom we both fear and admire. Most interestingly of all, on some level we want for him to succeed.” The world premiere is currently set for 31 May and 1 June 2015. This work is based on both the books by Thomas Harris and the show created by Bryan Fuller, who, as of yet, have not collaborated with Hong on his composition. “I would love to have them both for dinner,” he says. “Well not for dinner, but over for dinner.”

But don’t rule out a Game of Thrones opera just yet. Hong says it would be difficult to compose one now because only George RR Martins, the books’ author, knows how the saga ends. But he does have one character in mind. “Cersei Lannister … would make Salomé look like a virgin saint. Her strength may be her imagination, and her saving grace may be her unconditional love for her son, who may be even more wicked … Might as well write a whole opera on her, right?”