# How to meet a performer after a performance?



## rgz (Mar 6, 2010)

I've read from various people online about waiting around after a performance to meet a performer. Can anyone tell me how this works precisely? Going to see Lucia at the Met next year and I can't say how much it would mean just to speak briefly to Natalie Dessay and tell her how much she has impacted my life.


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

I second the question. I want to see Argerich in... damn, I never really learned english names of months. 

02.10

Man, that's pretty soon.


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## rgz (Mar 6, 2010)

Aramis said:


> I second the question. I want to see Argerich in... damn, I never really learned english names of months.
> 
> 02.10
> 
> Man, that's pretty soon.


October  (at least, I presume so given that you're likely using European date conventions ... otherwise, February)


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

Become a patron of the Met, give them several thousand dollars, and you'll be invited to cocktail parties with the performers.


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## rgz (Mar 6, 2010)

Looking for a slightly less expensive option than that


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

I think that you should dress yourself according to opera's theme (Parsifal - plate armor, Norma - robe of druid, Traviata - frock coat etc) and enter the stage in one of scenes includig on-stage choir and pretend to be one of singers, after end of the scene you will go backstage and wait there for your singer.

Eventually you could dress yourself like a composer who wrote the opera and during the final applause enter the stage and say 'thank you, thank you, I'm glad you still like it after 200 years, I'll be back to heaven soon but first I want to meet miss Dessay backstage".

If it will be Wagner performance just grow a lot of nasty hair on your neck and cover your forehead with beret.


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

rgz said:


> Looking for a slightly less expensive option than that


I wasn't kidding. Short of that, your chances are slim, exactly because the Met has thousands of patrons and they'll have priority, so, it's not likely that you'll get to Natalie.


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## rgz (Mar 6, 2010)

Aramis said:


> I think that you should dress yourself according to opera's theme (Parsifal - plate armor, Norma - robe of druid, Traviata - frock coat etc) and enter the stage in one of scenes includig on-stage choir and pretend to be one of singers, after end of the scene you will go backstage and wait there for your singer.
> 
> Eventually you could dress yourself like a composer who wrote the opera and during the final applause enter the stage and say 'thank you, thank you, I'm glad you still like it after 200 years, I'll be back to heaven soon but first I want to meet miss Dessay backstage".
> 
> If it will be Wagner performance just grow a lot of nasty hair on your neck and cover your forehead with beret.


lol, I like the way you think



Almaviva said:


> I wasn't kidding. Short of that, your chances are slim, exactly because the Met has thousands of patrons and they'll have priority, so, it's not likely that you'll get to Natalie.


Hrm


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

After Boccanegra at ROH I waited by the stage door and got autographs/photographs of Joseph Calleja, Pappano and Domingo.

I wouldn't say I had a meaningful conversation with any of them though I was too star struck.


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

Stage door at the Met? I'm not so sure. There is the underground garage, most likely a celebrity like Natalie Dessay will leave by car.


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## jhar26 (Jul 6, 2008)

Put on your James Levine lookalike wig.


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

jhar26 said:


> Put on your James Levine lookalike wig.


It will only work if the user is very short, fat, and ugly.

In which case Natalie may not want to see him/her anyway.


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

Aramis said:


> I think that you should dress yourself according to opera's theme (Parsifal - plate armor, Norma - robe of druid, Traviata - frock coat etc).


This might work at the Met but don't try it somewhere like Salzburg or you'll stand out like a sore thumb in whatever off-the-wall production is going down there.


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## Chi_townPhilly (Apr 21, 2007)

Membership in the Wagner Society of New York has afforded me the opportunity to say hello to mezzo Michelle DeYoung and conductor Kazushi Ono (to count the more well-known performers)- and no special contribution was required on those occasions.

Unfortunately, that gambit won't work with Natalie Dessay... Wagner's not her _ouvre_.


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## Artaserse (Aug 1, 2010)

I met M-me Dessay once absolutely "normal" before the concert at TCE in Paris . She was also in the audience. ;-)
But in my experience, the great musicians are really nice people and if you´re waiting for them ( or especially for your favorite one) with a big bunch of flowers at the artist entrance or backstage, they are not " afraid " to speak to you some few words, or even more....
Good luck!


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

> if you´re waiting for them ( or especially for your favorite one) with a big bunch of flowers at the artist entrance or backstage


Isn't the major problem of the whole thing to get backstage? I guess noone has dillemas like "how to make artist talk to you after you face him" or "what kind of flowers should I get him".


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

Artaserse said:


> I met M-me Dessay once absolutely "normal" before the concert at TCE in Paris . She was also in the audience. ;-)
> But in my experience, the great musicians are really nice people and if you´re waiting for them ( or especially for your favorite one) with a big bunch of flowers at the artist entrance or backstage, they are not " afraid " to speak to you some few words, or even more....
> Good luck!


I don't want to sound very discouraging but the Met with its thousands of patrons (it's not a governmentally supported opera house so they do rely heavily on private donors) and its underground garage and limousines may be a different animal. I'm not sure the user will ever get the opportunity to go backstage as this is currently a perk of patronage and kicks in at a certain level of contributions (donations), and I'm not sure the Met organizers won't take Mme. Dessay directly to her hotel in a glass-stained limousine so she may never pop out of a backdoor entrance.

I don't doubt Natalie Dessay is the nicest person and very accessible (that's the impression I get from watching clips of her interviews) but this may just not be the way the Met does things. They usually do tend to use these perks and privileges to encourage people to become patrons, and they mail special invitations to patrons so that they can meet the artists. Famously, Pavarotti was said to submit to this with a very low mood since he liked a lot more to just go out on his own feet and meet a crowd of people waiting for him (he loved the attention). He would do what the Met people wanted for a while, would sit at a corner (always close to the food) and be grumpy and unwelcoming until they let him out, then he would walk to his fans outside and be delighted with all the love. Placido Domingo on the other hand is said to adapt perfectly to this model and behave just like the Met organizers want him to behave, while being the perfect host to the moneyed crowd.

But if the user is lucky enough to bypass all that and get to Mme. Dessay, more power to him/her, and I'll be happy for him/her. I'm just trying to be realistic here, not to cause false expectations. Is it worth trying to meet her using your idea? Surely. Is it as likely to pay off at the Met as opposed to other opera houses? No. But certainly it doesn't hurt to try. Maybe Natalie Dessay will be just like Pavarotti and say to the organizers - "thanks for the special cocktail party for the wealthy patrons - I did stay for a while and fulfilled my duty - and thanks for the limo, but no thanks, I'll just go out on foot and meet my fans." Certainly Pavarotti's and Domingo's stories show that there is more than one way to comply with these rules that the Met tries to impose.


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## Edward Elgar (Mar 22, 2006)

Stalk them. You can tell them how great they are in the courtroom.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Forget the larger "establishment" venues like the Met and go to the smaller community or university based ones. In the past year, I have been going to see classical performances in such venues all over Sydney, and the performers are very accessible there. At some, there is actually free champagne after the concert with the performers, and they also mingle with the audience during interval. I for one have had enough of the formality and elite snobbishness of the larger venues in the city, it's better to go out to the suburbs or the universities and actually be part of the experience, not just a passive consumer...


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

Andre said:


> Forget the larger "establishment" venues like the Met and go to the smaller community or university based ones. In the past year, I have been going to see classical performances in such venues all over Sydney, and the performers are very accessible there. At some, there is actually free champagne after the concert with the performers, and they also mingle with the audience during interval. I for one have had enough of the formality and elite snobbishness of the larger venues in the city, it's better to go out to the suburbs or the universities and actually be part of the experience, not just a passive consumer...


Unfortunately the big name performers rarely go to the small venues. I don't know about Sydney, but here in the United States the small regional opera companies only get a bunch of unknown singers.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Almaviva said:


> Unfortunately the big name performers rarely go to the small venues. I don't know about Sydney, but here in the United States the small regional opera companies only get a bunch of unknown singers.


Well, you definitely would not get to meet big name international performers at the smaller venues in Sydney, but you definitely can meet some of the better known local performers (on the classical music scene of Eastern Australia) as well as some emerging artists. At Sydney Conservatorium, the lecturers - experts in their fields who have performed all over the world - are easy to get hold of after recitals, if you are that way inclined (& maybe conversation can be more in-depth if they are available for drinks with the audience after the show)...


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

Andre said:


> Well, you definitely would not get to meet big name international performers at the smaller venues in Sydney, but you definitely can meet some of the better known local performers (on the classical music scene of Eastern Australia) as well as some emerging artists. At Sydney Conservatorium, the lecturers - experts in their fields who have performed all over the world - are easy to get hold of after recitals, if you are that way inclined (& maybe conversation can be more in-depth if they are available for drinks with the audience after the show)...


Nice! I live in a small metropolitan area in the United States and we do have an opera company that presents some 3 or 4 productions per season. But we do have a nice perk: they sponsor a series of catered dinners that happen a few days before each opera is presented, in which we get typical food of the country that the opera is from, and during dinner we have a lecture about the opera (with musical fragments played to illustrate the points being made) delivered by either the conductor or an expert from the Department of Music of the local univeristy, and sometimes performers are there too and interact with the guests. We also get to attend rehearsals and talk to the performers. The lecturer, conductor, performers sit at the tables with the attendees during dinner. And it's not expensive, and no special invitations are need, we just purchase the dinner tickets (they cost about the same that one would pay at any regular restaurant) and while the food is not always great, the conversation is fascinating.


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## SalieriIsInnocent (Feb 28, 2008)

I am surprised they don't have meet and greets or VIP packages.


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

SalieriIsInnocent said:


> I am surprised they don't have meet and greets or VIP packages.


It's not that they don't have them. They do, but these things are all already taken by the high paying patrons. It's New York City, there's thousands of rich people living there. The competition is just too stiff.


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