# The average opera goer, c. 1910



## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

The average opera-goer - and it is for him that opera is goven chiefly - likes to see scenic backgrounds of historic interest, processions, and dances, and hear love airs and duos, and pleasing instrumental interludes..."

(Henry T. Finck, Massenet & His Operas, 1910)

This was written in 1910, in the days when opera was still mainstream entertainment, before cinema and television.

Thoughts?


----------



## CDs (May 2, 2016)

SimonTemplar said:


> The average opera-goer - and it is for him that opera is goven chiefly - likes to see scenic backgrounds of historic interest, processions, and dances, and hear love airs and duos, and pleasing instrumental interludes..."
> 
> (Henry T. Finck, Massenet & His Operas, 1910)
> 
> ...


Today's opera goers love for it to be in 3D and have rumble seats. Plus have a waiter to come by and serve you hot dogs, popcorn and beer. And it all must be done for under $20.


----------



## Belowpar (Jan 14, 2015)

I have updated it. A lot has changed.

"The average opera-goer - and it is for him and her that opera is given chiefly - likes to see scenic backgrounds of historic interest, processions, and dances, and hear love airs and duos, and pleasing instrumental interludes..."


----------



## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

SimonTemplar said:


> The average opera-goer - and it is for him that opera is goven chiefly - likes to see scenic backgrounds of historic interest, processions, and dances, and hear love airs and duos, and pleasing instrumental interludes..."
> 
> (Henry T. Finck, Massenet & His Operas, 1910)
> 
> ...


Those where the days as my grandmother use to say.


----------



## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

CDs said:


> Today's opera goers love for it to be in 3D and have rumble seats. Plus have a waiter to come by and serve you hot dogs, popcorn and beer. And it all must be done for under $20.


And ignore what's on screen/stage while they look at their devices.


----------



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

At a restaurant yesterday, I saw a young couple obviously in love. They were looking, together, at both their devices placed side by side at the same time.


----------



## Belowpar (Jan 14, 2015)

KenOC said:


> At a restaurant yesterday, I saw a young couple obviously in love. They were looking, together, at both their devices placed side by side at the same time.


Why weren't you looking at your partner? :devil:


----------



## Headphone Hermit (Jan 8, 2014)

Belowpar said:


> Why weren't you looking at your partner? :devil:


Why would he? he knows what she looks like by now :devil:


----------



## mountmccabe (May 1, 2013)

Sorry, Finck, I prefer _Salome_.


----------



## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

mountmccabe said:


> Sorry, Finck, I prefer _Salome_.


It was a Regie performance of Strauss's Salome at the ROH circa 2007 that put me off live opera forever. Nazi uniforms, random nude women standing around, and the whole thing set in a subterranean public convenience. At least a musical masterpiece was not traduced by this deliberately crass staging: it's almost unbelievable that the same composer who wrote such beautiful songs could have come up with this horrid noise, just as some people don't believe that Seneca's bloodthirsty tragedies could be the work of the urbane philosopher who authored his letters. Far better for the lover of beautiful voices to listen to Massenet's Herodiade, with its lovely _Vision fugitive_ and Jean's moving _Ne pouvant réprimer les élans de la foi_: the whole opera is beautiful, maybe the best of the Massenet operas I've heard so far. I believe Henry Finck was partial to it as well, and especially to a certain smouldering Herode, who might well have caused Mrs Finck a jealous pang or two!


----------



## mountmccabe (May 1, 2013)

Figleaf said:


> It was a Regie performance of Strauss's Salome at the ROH circa 2007 that put me off live opera forever. Nazi uniforms, random nude women standing around, and the whole thing set in a subterranean public convenience. At least a musical masterpiece was not traduced by this deliberately crass staging: it's almost unbelievable that the same composer who wrote such beautiful songs could have come up with this horrid noise, just as some people don't believe that Seneca's bloodthirsty tragedies could be the work of the urbane philosopher who authored his letters. Far better for the lover of beautiful voices to listen to Massenet's Herodiade, with its lovely _Vision fugitive_ and Jean's moving _Ne pouvant réprimer les élans de la foi_: the whole opera is beautiful, maybe the best of the Massenet operas I've heard so far. I believe Henry Finck was partial to it as well, and especially to a certain smouldering Herode, who might well have caused Mrs Finck a jealous pang or two!


We have, I believe, different tastes. And a very insightful qualification, "[f]ar better for the lover of beautiful voices," I find that the heart of the matter.

I do love beautiful voices, but I am primarily interested in opera as drama, in using music and staging for dramatic effect.

I must admit I have not seen _Hérodiade_, and have not given the whole work a careful listen. I would like to, at some point, but, again, this is not quite to my taste so other works are higher priority. I will also note that at one point I really did not like Strauss, and would have been horrified at the thought of sitting through one of his operas.

And yes, Finck did seem to love this opera. The quote in the first post was from his discussion of it. He eventually continued with



> _Hérodiade_ is more in the style of grand opera than most of Massenet's other works, and among its musical numbers there are some gems. The tribal dissensions in the first scene may be less realistic than the altercations of the Jews in Strauss's _Salome_, but they are more musical; and after, in an opera, it is better that the realism should suffer than the music. Realistic as well as musical is the wonderful air of Salome in the same scene--the "Il est doux, il est bon," which thousands have sung and enjoyed who, not knowing even the name of the opera, supposed it to be simply one of the most exquisitely melodious and tender songs ever written in France or elsewhere.
> 
> There was a time when a single air like this could win success for an opera. We demand more, and fortunately there is more--much more--in _Hérodiade_. There are some, indeed, who think that, on the whole, this opera has greater musical interest even than _Thaïs_...


----------

