Opera Audience Protocol

[JSngry]

I was out and about today and heard the first part of a live Met broadcast of The Rake’s Progress on the radio, and the audience was LOL-ing at the humor in the libretto (which obviously(?) was being telegraphed at least a little by the cast, I thought I could hear it in the delivery.)

Is this normal behavior at opera gigs? I know there’s a lot of wit in a lot of them, but do audiences actually “have permission” to bust a gut at the really funny stuff?

Back in the day, I know, but in these "modern times"? I admit it was a little disarming, yet refreshing...or vice-versa.

[A Lark Ascending]

Knowing British audiences titter at the 'jokes'. I think it's a skill taught in finishing school.

To be fair, I think the genuine laughs often come from the production. The Glyndebourne production of Purcell's 'The Fairy Queen' is absolutely hilarious - owes more to Benny Hill than High Culture:

Go to 2 minutes

Edited May 10, 2015 by A Lark Ascending

[mjazzg]

Ooh er Missus......quite derailed my Sunday morning

[mikeweil]

That "serious music" approach certainly is a latter day invention. If you consider how close baroque opera was to theater of the time ... I am never afraid to laugh at a good musical joke, vocal or instrumental, but there are always people to whom music is a quasi religious affair and emotional reactions are sacrilege.

[Mark Stryker]

Certainly, people laugh at the opera -- have permission to and are encouraged to do so. Something to remember, however, is that performances today are always done with translations projected above the stage or, at the Met, on digital read-out screens on the back of the seat in front of you. Even works in English are accompanied by English titles. The result is that the audience today is actually even more clued into the verbal jokes, puns, humor, etc than they often were in the past. Sometimes it can be a little disconcerting that the laughs line up more with the timing of the screens rather than the actual words coming out of the singers' mouths.

[papsrus]

There's laughter, tears, audible gasps, sometimes even heckling (at La Scala). -- Actually, seems as though there's often heckling at La Scala, which appears to have devolved into some kind of weird self-parody. Although unkind to the performers, the singers surely know what they could be in for at La Scala, and in that spirit it would be kind of fun, in a touristy sort of way, to go experience it.s But if La Scala was the only option for seeing opera, I'd avoid it like the plague for the reputed unruly audiences.

And there's the hard-core Wagner devotees who are constantly up in arms about the modern productions that have taken over Bayreuth and sullied Wagner's artistic purity. Much hand-wringing (and booing) about that.

Nothing of the sort at The Met, I'm sure. Nor at other refined venues such as Glyndebourne, Vienna, ROH, etc., one would assume.

Down here in my little opera house, nothing but good times. Audience reactions are part of the experience.

[Chuck Nessa]

I believe the initial intent was audience participation - laughs, groans & shrieks.

From my vantage point the "up tight" '50s killed that and things have moved on.