Was the Figaro at the Garden in English, Don B? Highly unusual: I know that they've done the Magic Flute and The Trojans in translation in the late 60s/early 70s, but I thought that was it.

Now they usually have foreign people to teach singers how to sing in Russian, for example. The results are usually good.
I have few examples on youtube when the soloists sings in Russian and very well.
Here I was once asked to say Russian words for the best choir here. I forgot what it was. I think it was lithurgical work. Their prononciation was very good. I recorded my voice and they all listened. At the concert all my Russian friends said that they understood every word.

Singers can immitate sounds so well, better than I can.

I wish I could buy Russian lithurgical works for choir. I don't know how.

Not the only clue, burning dog.  When I first came to this thread I hadn't got far beyond her jeans and scruffy shoes.  A Grauniad journalist is wearing such gear for one reason only - she chooses to do so, just as the people she disparages choose to wear evening dress.  There will, of course, be plenty of people there who wear plain clothes because that's all they have.  I used to be one of those people but I enjoyed my opera, I still turn up in plain clothes and it's never been a problem.  The comments of trj and Ian Pace made me read to the end but I'm afraid that if Laura Barton is making any significant points I still don't know what they are.  This is, as I said earlier, journalism by numbers.  LB is following rule no 1 - write about what you know; and what Laura Barton knows is, quite clearly, Laura Barton.  Almost every point she made amounted to little more than 'I didn't like this'.* 

There is something almost Freudian about the composition she chooses as the exemplar of enjoyable music.  Opera repeats everything?  That would be as opposed to: Tutti Frutti, O Rudy, Tutti Frutti, O Rudy, Tutti Frutti, O Rudy, Tutti Frutti, O Rudy, Tutti Frutti, O Rudy  Opera needs surtitles because we can't always make out what's being sung?  In strict contrast, I suppose, to: A-wop-bop-a-loo-wop-a-wop-bam-boom.  All the fah-diddly-dahing smothers the plot: in contrast, once again, to A-wop.....  In fact it doesn't smother the plot at all: the plot will be about something quite simple, like plotting, killing or, just like Tutti Frutti, shagging.  Little Richard manages to change his partner's name and speciality (but nothing else) from verse to verse; opera sometimes has a bit more variation.  Both repeat.  Why?  Well, various reasons but chiefly because it sounds good and bears repetition.  Show me a 'rock chick' who has never spun the same song over and over again and I'll show you a liar. Obviously it doesn't sound good to someone who doesn't like it!

Not even in the city's most dog-eared rock venues do you find such uncouth behaviour 

It's good to know that things have changed radically since my days of attending rock concerts.  Or do you think LB might be kidding?  Or is she just surprised to find rich people can be discourteous?

"Why do they need to repeat everything?" my friend whispers. "Exactly." I reply. "They could get the whole thing done a lot faster if they just said it once." We quell the boredom by surreptitiously eating an orange 

On the subject of discourtesy, she's obviously one of those who has little consideration for those near her in the auditorium who might be enjoying the performance.

It is not just incidents like this that will keep me from returning to opera

I knew there'd be some good news in there somewhere.  Anyway, next time I feel tempted to read a Grauniad feature article, I shall resist.


* I don't really care for the singing
   while it looks spectacular, it is actually very dreary
   musically speaking, I like it slightly less than bassline house
   I tell him he has three long, warbly hours before him
   it's too long, the music, singing and drama never work together

Just a few of the utterly subjective pronouncements in the article. 
   

I am trying to remember names of composers that were mentioned surreptitiously when I was in college. They did not teach us any of this music, but they mentioned names.
I am looking at the Ron Dough's post. I will look again tomorrow, but at the first glance nothing sounds familiar.
I know that the best liturgical music is by composers that are unknown to me.
Of course, Rachmaninoff, Taneev, Tchaikovsky, R-K all wrote music to accompany liturgy, but the best loved were by unknown composers.

Can you name a few so that it is easier for me to remember?

I know that there are people here who will be grateful if I can find this information out.
I can teach them Russian. The Baroque Choir is fantastic. They have a good conductor and they often win prizes in competitions (even from professional choirs). They often sing with the Concert Orchestra (smaller orchestra, not RTE orchestra).

Overnight I remembered that Bortnyansky was mentioned. There were a few names. The names just escape me.
They just gave us one lecture (introductory), but no listening was available.

In my college I studied together with the son of Bolshoi Theater concertmeister. He accompanied ballet and somethin else.
The son of musicologist was also in college in my class.

We had a daughter of UN embasador to the UN in our class. She went to visit her parents and showed photos. They traveled accross the USA.
Her parents were always away.
There was a son of a general. The embasador and the general came to give us a little talk.
Recently I asked my friends here if they were baptised. One said that he was baptised in Riga. He is from St Petersburgh. Parents traveled to Riga where they had friends and baptised him there.
He was the only one, the rest were baptised as adults.

http://www.origenmusic.com/church-music.html

Me too, burning dog.  I'm very often guilty of some of the things I criticise - for example I have opinions that amount, more often than not, to little more than 'I liked x' or 'I didn't like y'.  But I think such opinions are appropriate for a forum like this, where the opinions of others are given equal opportunity for assessment.  I like to think I'd feel a bit guilty if I were dressing up such opinions and presenting them as considered comment in a supposedly intelligent journal

Burning Dog's 'CV' is all too credible.

I've never understood the charge of 'self-indulgence'.  If you happen to be a virtuoso rock guitarist (a Carlos Santana, a Jeff Beck or a Jimmy Page), how else are you supposed to show your virtuosity unless it's by 'noodling'?