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Chafing Dish
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« Reply #15 on: 15:57:15, 29-06-2007 » |
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The martle-ium is the message.
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time_is_now
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« Reply #16 on: 16:06:01, 29-06-2007 » |
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Is this thread for real? I have found it universally true that people who like opera are a lot nicer, and better to know, than non opera fans. Shurely a Jane Aushten parody, Shchafers?! |
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The city is a process which always veers away from the form envisaged and desired, ... whose revenge upon its architects and planners undoes every dream of mastery. It is [also] one of the sites where Dasein is assigned the impossible task of putting right what can never be put right. - Rob Lapsley
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harpy128
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« Reply #17 on: 01:34:04, 30-06-2007 » |
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I have found it universally true that people who like opera are a lot nicer, and better to know, than non opera fans, do you also find this ?
I didn't think the opera fans who were trying to trample us to death in the Amphitheatre bar this evening were very nice at all - they were like a herd of wild buffalo in fact  Perhaps they would be nice if you got to know them. As a matter of logic, this doesn't of course refute the idea that all the best people like opera. |
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Don Basilio
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« Reply #18 on: 12:04:14, 30-06-2007 » |
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[ But I also used to work as an usher at one of London's opera houses, and very quickly learned that many in the audience could be absolutely insufferable. Worst of all -- and notorious among front-of-house staff -- were the Wagner and ballet audiences.  I'm a bit of an armchair opera lover, (although this board is encouraging me to go to the ENO now, for which much thanks.) Quite often I have been getting along with someone, and it turns out they care for opera. On the other hand I am not a bit surprised at opilec's comment. It confirms all my suspicions. (I suspect Wagner and ballet lovers are pretty well mutually exclusive.) |
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To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh: a time to mourn, and a time to dance
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richard barrett
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« Reply #19 on: 12:21:13, 30-06-2007 » |
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All the best people may like opera but it is of course well known that some of the worst do too.  Winifred, Adolf and Wieland at Bayreuth. |
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Ian Pace
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« Reply #20 on: 12:23:32, 30-06-2007 » |
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On a somewhat milder level:  (I suppose if he didn't like opera, he might have sent in the SAS to storm the opera houses?) |
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'These acts of keeping politics out of music, however, do not prevent musicology from being a political act . . .they assure that every apolitical act assumes a greater political immediacy' - Philip Bohlman, 'Musicology as a Political Act'
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harpy128
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« Reply #21 on: 19:48:54, 30-06-2007 » |
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I suspect Wagner and ballet lovers are pretty well mutually exclusive.
How come? I'm interested in both Wagner and ballet. It's true that the interest in Wagner has increased at about the same time as the interest in ballet has decreased, now you come to mention it. |
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Don Basilio
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« Reply #22 on: 14:15:28, 01-07-2007 » |
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harpy -
Thank you. It was just an intuition on my part. I don't know, Wagnerian operas are full of intellectual ideas with a big band, and ballet is, er, more to do with form and visual appeal with a more delicate orchestral sound.
When I was young we used to go regularly to the ampitheatre at the ROH and the audiences on Wagner nights and ballet nights seemed so much different from other occasions. (And quite different from each other.)
But no reason why someone can't enjoy both, and I've no doubt in your case, harpy, be perfectly charming and pleasant at the same time.
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To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh: a time to mourn, and a time to dance
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Milly Jones
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« Reply #23 on: 18:02:49, 01-07-2007 » |
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And Petrushka?  |
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We pass this way but once. This is not a rehearsal!
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Don Basilio
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« Reply #24 on: 11:08:43, 02-07-2007 » |
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Yes, Milly and opilec, I agree in those cases.
Anyone thought of putting on the ballet music Wagner wrote for Tannhäuser as an individual piece, and then we could see the people who turn up. With scientific instruments in place to monitor the amount of jostling, queue jumping, elbowing and talking about themselves and name dropping in loud voices, and see if the audience was scientifically proved to be more rude than other audiences.
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To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh: a time to mourn, and a time to dance
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perfect wagnerite
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« Reply #25 on: 11:28:30, 02-07-2007 » |
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I suspect Wagner and ballet lovers are pretty well mutually exclusive.
How come? I'm interested in both Wagner and ballet. It's true that the interest in Wagner has increased at about the same time as the interest in ballet has decreased, now you come to mention it. I recall seeing some years ago some research - possibly by the Arts Council? - that suggested that, while the audiences for concerts and opera were largely the same, the ballet audience had very little overlap with other musical events. But I can't comment from experience as ballet is one of those things that I've never managed to get on with. Now Wagner on the other hand ....  |
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At every one of these [classical] concerts in England you will find rows of weary people who are there, not because they really like classical music, but because they think they ought to like it. (Shaw, Don Juan in Hell)
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Mary Chambers
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« Reply #26 on: 12:40:43, 02-07-2007 » |
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I'd have thought that ballet and opera audiences would be much the same, and concert audiences a bit different. I've always done all three (and straight theatre); I've even explored Wagner, though I think I've decided he's not really for me.
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Milly Jones
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« Reply #27 on: 12:46:49, 02-07-2007 » |
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Mary, I adore ballet and concerts but I struggle with opera most of the time, with the exception of Mozart. Wagner isn't my cuppa at all.
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We pass this way but once. This is not a rehearsal!
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Lord Byron
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« Reply #28 on: 13:08:23, 02-07-2007 » |
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wagner is crud
mozart IS the opera dude, in general
milly IS coooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool
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harpy128
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« Reply #29 on: 13:09:38, 02-07-2007 » |
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Thank you Don B - I'm sometimes pleasant, but when I'm doing battle in the amphitheatre bar I grow horns and a tail  A friend and I were at an Insight Evening at the ROH recently and were trying to work out from the look of the main house audience whether it was an opera night or a ballet night. In the end we had to sneek a look at one of their programmes (it was ballet). I think you often can tell a ballet audience though because there is a high proportion of dainty retired ballet teacher types, but whether there is a corresponding difference in temperament I'm not sure. |
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