Dressed to Kill: Are Opera Audiences Becoming Too Casual?
TO SEE VIDEO AND INTERACTIVE:
http://www.wqxr.org/#!/story/dressed-kill-are-opera-audiences-too-casual/
Monday, September 15, 2014 - 01:00 PM
Poll: How dressed up should you get for the opera?
Last week, I wrote a post wondering whether La Scala is being harmed because some top singers have said they would not perform at the theater as long as the loggionisti—those opinionated, self-appointed arbiters of quality and taste—are allowed to behave badly during performances (as opposed to during curtain calls, when many people express their opinions audibly).
Last week, I wrote a post wondering whether La Scala is being harmed because some top singers have said they would not perform at the theater as long as the loggionisti—those opinionated, self-appointed arbiters of quality and taste—are allowed to behave badly during performances (as opposed to during curtain calls, when many people express their opinions audibly).
My article elicited, as of this writing, 40 comments from
readers and many more on Facebook. Most Americans who commented said
audience members should be able to watch an opera performance
undisturbed, though any sort of response and behavior should be
tolerated at the end. This reaction was both pragmatic and Solomonic in
allowing for the right of artists to perform without fear of
interruption but then guaranteeing freedom of speech and expression of
all opinions.
Some Italian commenters insisted that outbursts from the loggione are not only part of their birthright but an important component of the opera experience in Italy. One commenter, Antonio Augusto Rizzoli, a 76-year-old devoted operagoer from Venice, became something of a lightning rod not only for his defense of the loggionisti but his assertion that the way some people (particularly Americans) dress when they attend opera at Venice's beautiful and historic Teatro La Fenice was much more offensive than any behavior by loggionisti.
Signor Rizzoli posted photographs he took of attendees at a performance of Il Trovatore last week at La Fenice. One was of a young man in jeans, an Oxford shirt and a sweater tied around his shoulders, drinking back a beverage as he walked. Nearby was a man with a large straw hat that Rizzoli said was also on his head during the performance. Others wore plaid shirts with tails out over casual slacks…no jacket, tie or dressy attire. He asked, rhetorically, whether a theater such as La Fenice, with an annual budget of some 81 million euros, could allow itself to keep out those few "indecorous" ticket holders whose attire “compromises” the visual and pleasurable aspect of attendance at a performance in this theater.
I chose to repost his photos and then asked my Facebook followers: "Which is worse: dressing for the opera as if you are about to mow the lawn, ride a horse or paddle a boat OR catcalling, hissing and booing DURING an opera performance? Should the inappropriately dressed be denied admission? Should audience members who jeer and howl during the performance be removed from the performance?"
This set off a firestorm of debate with more than 250 comments and the fallout was rather astonishing. It became a textbook example of the good and bad aspects of social media. You can read the fascinating thread here. Leading singers, directors, designers, managers and other opera workers (many, though hardly all, from the U.S.) said, in effect, that bad audience behavior during performances was much worse than ugly attire. Their point was that singers don’t see how audience members in a dark auditorium are dressed and that the most important thing is that there be "butts in the seats." Many acknowledged, however, that it is nice when audience members dress attractively.
Signor Rizzoli, I think it is fair to say, comes from an older tradition and a good one. To his sensibility, a well-dressed audience is part of the occasion. He pointed out that in the 1950s there was a dress code in Italian theaters. So perhaps the issue is not how fancily one dresses but whether they are dressed in a way that used to be called "smart." I don’t think opera audiences should be expected to wear ball gowns and tuxedos (called lo smoking in Italian) but it is a good thing to dress nicely for a night at the opera. As one commenter pointed out, "smart casual" attire in Europe is dressier than in the States.
In reading all of the comments, I came to understand how different
cultures—even those that generally admire one another such as Americans
and Italians—experience things differently. Signor Rizzoli writes pretty
well in English but it is not idiomatic and can sound stuffy and
arrogant. Some of the Americans responded in ways that were too
familiar, in the casual parlance of social media, and he took umbrage.
It escalated the emotions in the exchanges on the thread and he wrote
things that sounded, at times, racist and insensitive. Rizzoli’s testy
rudeness (especially toward American baritone Michael Mayes, whom he
treated abusively) cannot be justified. Italians, as part of their
discourse, use language that would make politically-correct Americans
blanch. In contrast, Americans can sound too familiar with strangers. We
see this as friendly; some other nationalities perceive it as rude.
Regular readers of my articles know that I spend a lot of time in Italy, went to university there, and speak the language fluently. My undergraduate major was Venetian history—it was the first great capital of opera—so I am particularly attuned to that city and its traditions. All Italians have as part of their heritage a very strong visual sense. They are more aggrieved than most people if something does not conform to their aesthetic ideal.
People who grew up in Venice or have spent a lot of time there for decades wring their hands as they have seen their fragile city practically destroyed by mass tourism, fast food, and the hordes who traipse through on day trips, showing little awareness of what makes the place special. This ruination is largely the fault of the more crass commercial sectors of the city, but Venice has been denatured. It pains real Venetians deeply and I suspect that is where Rizzoli is coming from. Teatro La Fenice, rebuilt after a devastating fire in the late 1990s, is a treasured reminder of what Venice was.
I propose finding common ground in this passionate war of words by turning to my old friend Rossini. His L’Italiana in Algeri premiered at Venice’s Teatro San Benedetto on May 22, 1813 (the day Wagner was born in Leipzig). One scene, late in the opera, reveals in a humorous way how cultures can clash and words are misunderstood. But at least they look good while doing it!
Some Italian commenters insisted that outbursts from the loggione are not only part of their birthright but an important component of the opera experience in Italy. One commenter, Antonio Augusto Rizzoli, a 76-year-old devoted operagoer from Venice, became something of a lightning rod not only for his defense of the loggionisti but his assertion that the way some people (particularly Americans) dress when they attend opera at Venice's beautiful and historic Teatro La Fenice was much more offensive than any behavior by loggionisti.
Signor Rizzoli posted photographs he took of attendees at a performance of Il Trovatore last week at La Fenice. One was of a young man in jeans, an Oxford shirt and a sweater tied around his shoulders, drinking back a beverage as he walked. Nearby was a man with a large straw hat that Rizzoli said was also on his head during the performance. Others wore plaid shirts with tails out over casual slacks…no jacket, tie or dressy attire. He asked, rhetorically, whether a theater such as La Fenice, with an annual budget of some 81 million euros, could allow itself to keep out those few "indecorous" ticket holders whose attire “compromises” the visual and pleasurable aspect of attendance at a performance in this theater.
I chose to repost his photos and then asked my Facebook followers: "Which is worse: dressing for the opera as if you are about to mow the lawn, ride a horse or paddle a boat OR catcalling, hissing and booing DURING an opera performance? Should the inappropriately dressed be denied admission? Should audience members who jeer and howl during the performance be removed from the performance?"
This set off a firestorm of debate with more than 250 comments and the fallout was rather astonishing. It became a textbook example of the good and bad aspects of social media. You can read the fascinating thread here. Leading singers, directors, designers, managers and other opera workers (many, though hardly all, from the U.S.) said, in effect, that bad audience behavior during performances was much worse than ugly attire. Their point was that singers don’t see how audience members in a dark auditorium are dressed and that the most important thing is that there be "butts in the seats." Many acknowledged, however, that it is nice when audience members dress attractively.
Signor Rizzoli, I think it is fair to say, comes from an older tradition and a good one. To his sensibility, a well-dressed audience is part of the occasion. He pointed out that in the 1950s there was a dress code in Italian theaters. So perhaps the issue is not how fancily one dresses but whether they are dressed in a way that used to be called "smart." I don’t think opera audiences should be expected to wear ball gowns and tuxedos (called lo smoking in Italian) but it is a good thing to dress nicely for a night at the opera. As one commenter pointed out, "smart casual" attire in Europe is dressier than in the States.
A patron arrives on the red carpet at the Metropolitan Opera's opening night in 2012 (Stephen Nessen/WQXR)
Regular readers of my articles know that I spend a lot of time in Italy, went to university there, and speak the language fluently. My undergraduate major was Venetian history—it was the first great capital of opera—so I am particularly attuned to that city and its traditions. All Italians have as part of their heritage a very strong visual sense. They are more aggrieved than most people if something does not conform to their aesthetic ideal.
People who grew up in Venice or have spent a lot of time there for decades wring their hands as they have seen their fragile city practically destroyed by mass tourism, fast food, and the hordes who traipse through on day trips, showing little awareness of what makes the place special. This ruination is largely the fault of the more crass commercial sectors of the city, but Venice has been denatured. It pains real Venetians deeply and I suspect that is where Rizzoli is coming from. Teatro La Fenice, rebuilt after a devastating fire in the late 1990s, is a treasured reminder of what Venice was.
I propose finding common ground in this passionate war of words by turning to my old friend Rossini. His L’Italiana in Algeri premiered at Venice’s Teatro San Benedetto on May 22, 1813 (the day Wagner was born in Leipzig). One scene, late in the opera, reveals in a humorous way how cultures can clash and words are misunderstood. But at least they look good while doing it!
How Dressed up Should You Get for the Opera?
More in:
-
Fred Plotkin
FRED PLOTKIN is one of America’s foremost experts on opera and has distinguished himself in many fields as a writer, speaker, consultant and as a compelling teacher. He is an expert on everything Italian, the person other so-called Italy experts turn to for definitive information. Fred discovered the concept of "The Renaissance Man" as a small child and has devoted himself to pursuing that ideal as the central role of his life. In a “Public Lives” profile in The New York Times on August 30, 2002, Plotkin was described as "one of those New York word-of-mouth legends, known by the cognoscenti for his renaissance mastery of two seemingly separate disciplines: music and the food of Italy." In the same publication, on May 11, 2006, it was written that "Fred is a New Yorker, but has the soul of an Italian."
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please leave a comment-- or suggestions, particularly of topics and places you'd like to see covered