# Opera Experiences in the Audience



## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

Couchie's post might have already inspired all the good stories, but we haven't done a best & worst audience experiences with their seatmates lately have we? I'll start.

Best: not an opera house experience, it was opera in cinema and there was an older lady to my right and a younger one to my left. Before the show began, the younger one got up and came back with some rather aromatic hot food from the concession stand. The older one frowned and got snippy with her. I don't remember exactly what she said but it was something to the effect that if she was going to have smelly food with her she should sit elsewhere. I piped right up. "Lady, your smell has been bothering me since I sat down and I didn't say a word." The younger lady didn't say anything. The older one shut up.

Worst: again, opera in cinema. I was at a summer screening of the Met's Barbiere di Siviglia, just an awesome production. The rather large guy next to me had brought brownies and offered me some. After "Una voce poco fa" I commented that it was just wonderful. "Isn't it?" he replied. Unfortunately I had to leave early, and there wasn't enough room to get out. I stood right bang on his wife's toes on my way out. Oh my god. I'm still embarrassed. If you're reading this: I'm so sorry.


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## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

This isn't a "seatmate" experience (at least, I'm GLAD I wasn't sitting next to this woman), but after a performance of NORMA last March I was riding a shuttle bus from the opera house to the subway station. This really obnoxious woman got on (with a friend) and seemed just so enamored of her operatic "knowledge," which she was broadcasting to the whole bus in a LOUD voice, complete with mispronunications of Italian and "facts" that were just plain incorrect. And, as always with such people, she seemed completely oblivious to just how annoying she was being. Everyone else was staring at her in disbelief, and I actually thought one passenger was going to tell her to tone it down. I don't think she was drunk, either; I think she was just an obnoxious windbag. I was so happy when that bus ride was over!


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

my _favourite baddie_ was the biggest JDF fan in the world who sat 3 seats away and 2 rows behind me at La donna del lago and shouted BRAVO!!!, stomped and clapped every time Florez as much as blinked. Hesus! I'm surprised it didn't occur to him to crowd surf.

one lovely moment was at a different opera, when I noticed a woman in front of me wipe a tear during my favourite aria.


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

Definitely my best experience was last summer when I went to England and met up with our very own sospiro and a couple of other internet forum buddies and we all got a box (so posh) to see Les Troyens at Royal Opera House. I was very happy after so much opera drought in New Zealand, and I had chosen my opera seat companions so I knew I was safe from horror. We all had a great lunch together before hand, and the production was great.

Worst experience was when a young woman seat hopped into the empty seat next to me in the middle of Handel's Xerxes. Honestly I don't know what she was there for, she spent the entire time checking her mobile phone, slurping vodka from a plastic water bottle which made a resounding crack after every swig, rummaging noisily in her bag for nectarines that she then sucked at juicily, and hissing remarks to her friend. More attention had been paid to appearance than hygiene, although she looked pretty good she smelt strongly of alcohol and cheap perfume over an underlay of not very washed body. Nightmare. Makes the man at the Live in HD cinema swishing his straw in his frappe for two hours and the lady tapping in time to Messiah seem quite harmless.


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## Cavaradossi (Aug 2, 2012)

All the more excruciating because I was the perpetrator: We had single tickets to the last Gotterdamerung of the last Ring at the Met this May. What had started out as a partly sunny day had turned distinctly threatening by second intermission. Come the final act, sure enough a cell phone goes off a few rows ahead of us. But it wasn’t a normal ring, more like an alarm. That is dealt with, then my partner’s goes off with the same distinct ring, jarring us and sending him fumbling to mute it for several seconds. It occurred to me what was happening: one of those blanket community alerts was going out, which we later found out was due to flash flooding in the NYC area. (Maybe they heard the Rhine was about to overflow its banks in Lincoln Center). Those community alerts bypass your silent setting and a simple side button won’t mute it. You either have to acknowledge the message or turn off the phone. 

Now, my phone was in silent mode and I slowly reached for it in my suit coat pocket, hoping to discreetly power it off before, God forbid, it sounded too. But, with these new touch screens, you can’t just flip a switch, you need to touch the damn screen. At this point Siegfried was dead and things were playing out in the Gibichung Hall, a highly dramatic moment. I was loathe to distract my seat mates with a glowing screen, and unwisely waited for the right moment. Sure enough, it sounds and the proximity to my partner’s phone had people figuring I was the jerk who let his phone go off not once but twice. Ugh, I still cringe. Lesson learned: off means off, not silent. I’ve since learned how to disable those community alarms, but apparently there’s a Presidential alert that you can never disable. Be forewarned.


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## Cavaradossi (Aug 2, 2012)

On the brighter side: Before a performance of _Dr Atomic_ in Chicago, an attractive, well dressed, vaguely familiar woman taking her seat in the next section over caught my eye. I recall actually thinking this to myself:_ "My word, that woman has some nerve trying so hard to look so much like Renee Fleming. Who does she think she is?"._ When I then noticed her seat companion looked a lot like Thomas Hampson and remembered the two had a Traviata opening in a few weeks time, I figured out why she looked so much like Renee Fleming.


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

Cavaradossi said:


> All the more excruciating because I was the perpetrator: We had single tickets to the last Gotterdamerung of the last Ring at the Met this May. What had started out as a partly sunny day had turned distinctly threatening by second intermission. Come the final act, sure enough a cell phone goes off a few rows ahead of us. But it wasn't a normal ring, more like an alarm. That is dealt with, then my partner's goes off with the same distinct ring, jarring us and sending him fumbling to mute it for several seconds. It occurred to me what was happening: one of those blanket community alerts was going out, which we later found out was due to flash flooding in the NYC area. (Maybe they heard the Rhine was about to overflow its banks in Lincoln Center). Those community alerts bypass your silent setting and a simple side button won't mute it. You either have to acknowledge the message or turn off the phone.
> 
> Now, my phone was in silent mode and I slowly reached for it in my suit coat pocket, hoping to discreetly power it off before, God forbid, it sounded too. But, with these new touch screens, you can't just flip a switch, you need to touch the damn screen. At this point Siegfried was dead and things were playing out in the Gibichung Hall, a highly dramatic moment. I was loathe to distract my seat mates with a glowing screen, and unwisely waited for the right moment. Sure enough, it sounds and the proximity to my partner's phone had people figuring I was the jerk who let his phone go off not once but twice. Ugh, I still cringe. Lesson learned: off means off, not silent. I've since learned how to disable those community alarms, but apparently there's a Presidential alert that you can never disable. Be forewarned.


Now that is embarrassing. I'll try and remember - off means off- although all I can imagine we'd get a warning for in NZ is a tsunami or volcano, and I jolly well want to hear either of those, no matter who is expiring artistically on stage, before we all go with them!


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

I learned off-means-off the hard way as well. Even in silent mode, if the home button is pressed long enough on an iPhone, Siri will be activated and start listening for a command. At a conference for work I inadvertently activated Siri. Unbeknownst to me, my sister had changed my nickname on the phone from my first name to "Sexy". And so when Siri failed to discern a command from my fumbling to turn the phone off, she brazenly announced to the (quiet) room, "Sorry SEXY, I didn't quite get that". 

I've never felt my face get so hot so fast.


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## katdad (Jan 1, 2009)

My very best audience experience was a couple years ago when I took a girlfriend to see Marriage of Figaro at the small opera company where I'd previously sung. We arrived very early so I could take her backstage and introduce her to my old friends.

The production of Nozze was a good one, fine young upcoming singers, and I especially watched for the guy singing "Antonio the Gardener" as that was the role I sang.

Anyway, it was after Act 2, intermission, and I was tapped on the shoulder. A woman seated behind us said "I thought you were better when I saw you sing the part" and I of course thanked her. Best memory ever from an audience experience!

Worst? Well, sadly, at Houston Grand Opera a full house was watching a fine performance of Tosca, and this woman a few rows over had some sort of anxiety attack, started screaming and yelling and jumped up, yelling incoherently. Luckily there were several physicians in the audience nearby and they got the woman calmed down and escorted her out. The performance was actually halted and a portion of the house lights were turned on. Very unfortunate.

On a lighter note, the typical talker or rattler or purse/pocket groper and incessant chatterer appears now and then. Usually a "shhhh" will do the job but on rare occasions a "Shut up!" is needed. And I've seen the ushers called to quiet down a person once.


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## MAuer (Feb 6, 2011)

Perhaps not the "best" experience, but certainly the most amusing: Ten years ago, I was in Chicago to hear Jonas Kaufmann sing Alfredo in _La Traviata_. During one intermission, a couple seated in back of me were discussing some of the cast members, and apparently, the woman compared JK to Bocelli. Her husband responded with a rather shocked, "Bocelli doesn't have a voice like that!" She then made some comment to the effect that the two physically resembled each other -- at which point, I was tempted to turn around and say something like, "Lady, Bocelli doesn't look that good, either."

Worst experience was another _La Traviata _with the Jonas, this woman at the Met. A trio of blabbermouths seated just to the right of me seemed to think that Verdi had written this music as accompaniment for their chatter. Dirty looks would silence them for perhaps 10 minutes before the whispering would resume.


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

Most amusing for me was after the end of a Nozze di Figaro in NZ. I was queueing to leave when I heard the elderly lady in front of me say to her companion: "Well, they never did sing that "Figaro, Figaro, Figaro song!"


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## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

Cavaradossi said:


> On the brighter side: Before a performance of _Dr Atomic_ in Chicago, an attractive, well dressed, vaguely familiar woman taking her seat in the next section over caught my eye. I recall actually thinking this to myself:_ "My word, that woman has some nerve trying so hard to look so much like Renee Fleming. Who does she think she is?"._ When I then noticed her seat companion looked a lot like Thomas Hampson and remembered the two had a Traviata opening in a few weeks time, I figured out why she looked so much like Renee Fleming.


LOL!

And that reminds me: in 2004 I was at the Kennedy Center buying tickets for my very first opera there. I was resting on a bench, when who should walk by but...Thomas Hampson! (He was singing a recital there at the time.) He exited the stage door, which was a couple of yards from where I was sitting, and walked right out the front door. It all happened so fast that I had no time to react, but I do remember immediately thinking to myself, "That's Thomas Hampson!"


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## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

Bellinilover said:


> This isn't a "seatmate" experience (at least, I'm GLAD I wasn't sitting next to this woman), but after a performance of NORMA last March I was riding a shuttle bus from the opera house to the subway station. This really obnoxious woman got on (with a friend) and seemed just so enamored of her operatic "knowledge," which she was broadcasting to the whole bus in a LOUD voice, complete with mispronunications of Italian and "facts" that were just plain incorrect. And, as always with such people, she seemed completely oblivious to just how annoying she was being. Everyone else was staring at her in disbelief, and I actually thought one passenger was going to tell her to tone it down. I don't think she was drunk, either; I think she was just an obnoxious windbag. I was so happy when that bus ride was over!


That's the problem with actually knowing something - it makes blowhards go from just obnoxious to downright painful!


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## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

deggial said:


> my _favourite baddie_ was the biggest JDF fan in the world who sat 3 seats away and 2 rows behind me at La donna del lago and shouted BRAVO!!!, stomped and clapped every time Florez as much as blinked. Hesus! I'm surprised it didn't occur to him to crowd surf.
> 
> one lovely moment was at a different opera, when I noticed a woman in front of me wipe a tear during my favourite aria.


Yeah, I hate overloud fans too. But I've been overloud myself, from time to time, so I understand. Unfortunately, it's only embarrassing in retrospect, never at the time! :lol:


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## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

mamascarlatti said:


> Definitely my best experience was last summer when I went to England and met up with our very own sospiro and a couple of other internet forum buddies and we all got a box (so posh) to see Les Troyens at Royal Opera House. I was very happy after so much opera drought in New Zealand, and I had chosen my opera seat companions so I knew I was safe from horror. We all had a great lunch together before hand, and the production was great.
> 
> Worst experience was when a young woman seat hopped into the empty seat next to me in the middle of Handel's Xerxes. Honestly I don't know what she was there for, she spent the entire time checking her mobile phone, slurping vodka from a plastic water bottle which made a resounding crack after every swig, rummaging noisily in her bag for nectarines that she then sucked at juicily, and hissing remarks to her friend. More attention had been paid to appearance than hygiene, although she looked pretty good she smelt strongly of alcohol and cheap perfume over an underlay of not very washed body. Nightmare. Makes the man at the Live in HD cinema swishing his straw in his frappe for two hours and the lady tapping in time to Messiah seem quite harmless.


Yeah, I remember how PO'ed you were at that guy at the Messiah! I've been that irritated myself, actually. A performance of Carmen I went to, it seemed like everybody in the audience that had to cough saved it for the card song. Good God, people! Cough during the march! Cough during the overture! DO NOT COUGH DURING THE CARD SONG!!! Oh well. I got to rant about it afterwards, which is always fun. And I will always envy you your visit with all your friends at Les Troyens!


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## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

Cavaradossi said:


> All the more excruciating because I was the perpetrator: We had single tickets to the last Gotterdamerung of the last Ring at the Met this May. What had started out as a partly sunny day had turned distinctly threatening by second intermission. Come the final act, sure enough a cell phone goes off a few rows ahead of us. But it wasn't a normal ring, more like an alarm. That is dealt with, then my partner's goes off with the same distinct ring, jarring us and sending him fumbling to mute it for several seconds. It occurred to me what was happening: one of those blanket community alerts was going out, which we later found out was due to flash flooding in the NYC area. (Maybe they heard the Rhine was about to overflow its banks in Lincoln Center). Those community alerts bypass your silent setting and a simple side button won't mute it. You either have to acknowledge the message or turn off the phone.
> 
> Now, my phone was in silent mode and I slowly reached for it in my suit coat pocket, hoping to discreetly power it off before, God forbid, it sounded too. But, with these new touch screens, you can't just flip a switch, you need to touch the damn screen. At this point Siegfried was dead and things were playing out in the Gibichung Hall, a highly dramatic moment. I was loathe to distract my seat mates with a glowing screen, and unwisely waited for the right moment. Sure enough, it sounds and the proximity to my partner's phone had people figuring I was the jerk who let his phone go off not once but twice. Ugh, I still cringe. Lesson learned: off means off, not silent. I've since learned how to disable those community alarms, but apparently there's a Presidential alert that you can never disable. Be forewarned.


You know, I know how bad people feel about these things - and god knows I've been in the audience thinking "god what a jerk" when something similar happens to someone else - but it seems to me that the high technology wizards who invented things that aren't silent when you silence them have to take some blame for this. That and building things they don't distribute manuals with, so you don't find out that silent doesn't mean silent until you're at the orchestra. Grr!! When I'm elected President the first thing I'll do - no, not the lawyers - NUKE MICROSOFT!


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## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

katdad said:


> My very best audience experience was a couple years ago when I took a girlfriend to see Marriage of Figaro at the small opera company where I'd previously sung. We arrived very early so I could take her backstage and introduce her to my old friends.
> 
> The production of Nozze was a good one, fine young upcoming singers, and I especially watched for the guy singing "Antonio the Gardener" as that was the role I sang.
> 
> ...


You always have great stories. It's hard to imagine anything better than being out with a date at the opera, and a fan telling you spontaneously that you sang better than the guy on stage! Whoo!


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## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

MAuer said:


> Perhaps not the "best" experience, but certainly the most amusing: Ten years ago, I was in Chicago to hear Jonas Kaufmann sing Alfredo in _La Traviata_. During one intermission, a couple seated in back of me were discussing some of the cast members, and apparently, the woman compared JK to Bocelli. Her husband responded with a rather shocked, "Bocelli doesn't have a voice like that!" She then made some comment to the effect that the two physically resembled each other -- at which point, I was tempted to turn around and say something like, "Lady, Bocelli doesn't look that good, either."
> 
> Worst experience was another _La Traviata _with the Jonas, this woman at the Met. A trio of blabbermouths seated just to the right of me seemed to think that Verdi had written this music as accompaniment for their chatter. Dirty looks would silence them for perhaps 10 minutes before the whispering would resume.


Now that's scary. Why would people go to the opera to talk? That's just ... weird. I'm glad stories like that don't happen very often.


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

MAuer said:


> Perhaps not the "best" experience, but certainly the most amusing: Ten years ago, I was in Chicago to hear Jonas Kaufmann sing Alfredo in _La Traviata_. During one intermission, a couple seated in back of me were discussing some of the cast members, and apparently, the woman compared JK to Bocelli. Her husband responded with a rather shocked, "Bocelli doesn't have a voice like that!" She then made some comment to the effect that the two physically resembled each other -- at which point, I was tempted to turn around and say something like, "Lady, Bocelli doesn't look that good, either."


:lol::lol::lol: I feel your pain.


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

mamascarlatti said:


> Most amusing for me was after the end of a Nozze di Figaro in NZ. I was queueing to leave when I heard the elderly lady in front of me say to her companion: "Well, they never did sing that "Figaro, Figaro, Figaro song!"


that's kinda cute. Somebody should've told her that was in the prequel.


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

Bad:
Behind me at Faust at ROH, French guy started singing along to _'Salut! Demeure chaste et pure'_
The guy next to me in Munich farted all the way through the first part of _Lucia di Lammermoor_

Good:
As above by mamascarlatti _Les Troyens_ at ROH.
Chinese guy next to me at _La bohème_ in a regional theatre. He was so quiet & so still I thought at one point he'd died.
At a recent _Acis and Galatea_ there were some very powerful scenes especially when Galatea was raped and *nobody* clapped or bravo-ed. There was just a stunned & respectful silence. Spine tingling.


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## Dongiovanni (Jul 30, 2012)

Every performance has something going on in the audience. Here are some things I remember.

The good:
I saw Tosca some months ago at ROH and next to me was sitting a very cute elderly French couple. They were very concentrated on the performance and handn't moved or made any noise, but when the first notes of "E lucevan le stelle" sounded I could see that the the lady suddenly grabbed her husband's hand, and he hugged her during the whole aria. 

Some time ago I sat next to a couple during Magic Flute, obviously the man was not into opera. When he said to his wife something like "I'm glad it's finished" she replied "Oh, this was just the first act". 

The bad:
People who talk during a performance. It happens too often. One time two ladies were talking so I sshh-ed them, only after the third sshh they stopped.


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## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

sospiro said:


> Bad:
> Behind me at Faust at ROH, French guy started singing along to _'Salut! Demeure chaste et pure'_
> The guy next to me in Munich farted all the way through the first part of _Lucia di Lammermoor_
> 
> ...


Isn't it nice when everyone in the audience is on the same page? Just wonderful. Thanks.


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## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

Dongiovanni said:


> Every performance has something going on in the audience. Here are some things I remember.
> 
> The good:
> I saw Tosca some months ago at ROH and next to me was sitting a very cute elderly French couple. They were very concentrated on the performance and handn't moved or made any noise, but when the first notes of "E lucevan le stelle" sounded I could see that the the lady suddenly grabbed her husband's hand, and he hugged her during the whole aria.


Priceless! How I wish I'd been there to see it. I always say, there should always be newlyweds at the Met's La Boheme ... I know you were talking about Tosca but it's the same kind of thing. I think.


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

Following on from my post, unfortunately a few of the audience spoiled it at the end by booing the baddie - the monster Polyphemus for those who don't know Acis and Galatea - but I was more upset because I felt they were booing the fabulous Lukas Jakobski, whose performance certainly impressed this critic.

This has become common practice and I don't like it. At a recent, and by all accounts superb _Billy Budd_ the critic Mark Ronan wrote "... and Brindley Sherratt's portrayal of the pure evil in this man brought tumultuously appreciative boos"


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

sospiro said:


> The guy next to me in Munich farted all the way through the first part of _Lucia di Lammermoor_


the horror! not opera, but a few years ago at King Lear there was an overly-perfumed lady two rows up whose fragrance stayed strong throughout the play. I was high by the end of it


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## katdad (Jan 1, 2009)

guythegreg said:


> You always have great stories. It's hard to imagine anything better than being out with a date at the opera, and a fan telling you spontaneously that you sang better than the guy on stage! Whoo!


Single hetero guys take note: Opera is a babe magnet! (as it is generally a very romantic environment for fans of all flavors). You think that just taking a date to La Boheme is good? Try singing in an opera and see what happens. Fans asking for autographs -- and phone numbers.

And yes, my date during that Nozze performance was suitably impressed. Despite my normally sarcastic demeanor, I'm actually a pretty nice guy, made lots of friends while singing, and during my "retirement" I still, er, "bank" on the goodwill when I take a date backstage to meet my old friends.

This happened recently, at the Met telecast of the Las Vegas-style Rigoletto. At the movie theater, my girlfriend and I went early, and there were any number of old opera friends there, all of whom "Hi, Sam! We miss you on stage!" and so forth. My girlfriend was suitably impressed too, heh heh.


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

katdad said:


> My very best audience experience was a couple years ago when I took a girlfriend to see Marriage of Figaro at the small opera company where I'd previously sung. We arrived very early so I could take her backstage and introduce her to my old friends.
> 
> The production of Nozze was a good one, fine young upcoming singers, and I especially watched for the guy singing "Antonio the Gardener" as that was the role I sang.
> 
> Anyway, it was after Act 2, intermission, and I was tapped on the shoulder. A woman seated behind us said "I thought you were better when I saw you sing the part" and I of course thanked her. Best memory ever from an audience experience!


:tiphat:

Lovely story! What a great compliment!



katdad said:


> Worst? Well, sadly, at Houston Grand Opera a full house was watching a fine performance of Tosca, and this woman a few rows over had some sort of anxiety attack, started screaming and yelling and jumped up, yelling incoherently. Luckily there were several physicians in the audience nearby and they got the woman calmed down and escorted her out. The performance was actually halted and a portion of the house lights were turned on. Very unfortunate.


Very sad. A friend of mine told me about when a sufferer of Tourette's syndrome sat near her at the ROH & eventually the poor man had to be asked to leave.



katdad said:


> On a lighter note, the typical talker or rattler or purse/pocket groper and incessant chatterer appears now and then. Usually a "shhhh" will do the job but on rare occasions a "Shut up!" is needed. And I've seen the ushers called to quiet down a person once.


A glare often works as well!


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## katdad (Jan 1, 2009)

sospiro said:


> :tiphat:
> 
> Lovely story! What a great compliment!
> 
> A glare often works as well!


Problem being, these talkers are so self absorbed that they don't see anybody nearby, and for a glare you've got to have them looking at you, and with house lights down, it's not easy. The "shhh!" is usually all that's needed.

And yes, a fun compliment.


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## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

sospiro said:


> This has become common practice and I don't like it. At a recent, and by all accounts superb _Billy Budd_ the critic Mark Ronan wrote "... and Brindley Sherratt's portrayal of the pure evil in this man brought tumultuously appreciative boos"


Well, I probably shouldn't mention that I did it myself at San Francisco, for Christian van Horn ... not sure he understood I was "booing the villain" just for fun, but it may have occurred to him, he seemed to perk up a bit in the later performances and kind of got into it, I thought... To me it's just a fun thing to do.


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## katdad (Jan 1, 2009)

guythegreg said:


> Well, I probably shouldn't mention that I did it myself at San Francisco, for Christian van Horn ... not sure he understood I was "booing the villain" just for fun, but it may have occurred to him, he seemed to perk up a bit in the later performances and kind of got into it, I thought... To me it's just a fun thing to do.


Come to think of it, I've heard opera villains booed at curtain call, followed by applause as the singer acknowledged the boos with a wave and smile.

I've never heard "genuine" boos from an audience. If the performance of a certain singer was lukewarm, then faint applause was all that the singer received. But I'm told that American audiences are less raucous than in Europe although I don't know whether this is true or just anecdotal.


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## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

I've heard boos at the Met, real ones. The set design of their new Attila was booed, I believe; and also Luc Bondy's Tosca.


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## Dongiovanni (Jul 30, 2012)

During the last Don Giovanni in Prague, Leporello visited the audience with a full bottle of champagne and some glasses while the Don was singing the Champagne aria. He only served the ladies ! That was a pretty hilarious moment.


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

Dongiovanni said:


> During the last Don Giovanni in Prague, Leporello visited the audience with a full bottle of champagne and some glasses while the Don was singing the Champagne aria. He only served the ladies ! That was a pretty hilarious moment.


:lol:

I'd love to have seen that!


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