Live from the Met 2.04.11 - Wagner: Das Rheingold

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Yes. Applause. Applauding the set? Last heard by me at the Exmouth Players production of Rebecca c 1977.

I remember conducting "The Merry Widow" in 1990, and the audience applauded the set when the tabs opened in the 2nd Act. At least it was in the orchestral intro, though still crass and annoying.

[Don Basilio]

Wagner would have been delighted.

And if they'd applauded Act 1 and 2 of Parsifal? I think not.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Wagner was many things - egotistical, selfish, ... but never crass.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Did that "interval quiz" take place at all - at the end, perhaps?

[Bert Coules]

If the audience's action was indeed merely routine then I withdraw my remark about Wagner's possible approval, but there's nothing crass about a genuine spontaneous reaction in the theatre. The audience is an integral part of the performance and should be allowed to act as such.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The audience is an integral part of the performance and should be allowed to act as such.

But that opens the door to anarchy. One person's spontaneity is another's discomfort.
The singers and the orchestra are the performance. The audience has just paid to see it.

[Bert Coules]

Most opera house performances could do with a bit of anarchy. And I stand by my assertion that the members of the audience are as much part of the whole as the performers are, and should be allowed to participate if the mood takes them. The possibility of a spontaneous outburst, whether of approval or the opposite, the sheer knife-edge danger of the performers' need to grab those hundreds of individuals and coerce them into a single entity, is a vital part of what makes live theatre unique.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

But a "spontanious outburst" can also be a lack of self-control and a lack of consideration for others. Applauding over the music is disrespectful to the musicians.

[Bert Coules]

We'll have to agree to differ on this: we have very different ideas of the relationship between performers and audience.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

[kernelbogey]

Sadly I missed both the HD transmission of Rheingold and last night's Met broadcast. I'm looking forward to the HD transmission of Walkuere on 14 May, for which I booked months ago. The Met mini-website on the Ring is worth a look:

http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/content_index.aspx?id=12572

[Flosshilde]

Most opera house performances could do with a bit of anarchy. And I stand by my assertion that the members of the audience are as much part of the whole as the performers are, and should be allowed to participate if the mood takes them. The possibility of a spontaneous outburst, whether of approval or the opposite, the sheer knife-edge danger of the performers' need to grab those hundreds of individuals and coerce them into a single entity, is a vital part of what makes live theatre unique.

At the risk of re-opening the argument, there are times when applause is appropriate to the context, & times when it isn't. During bel canto operas applause is appropriate, & would be recognised as such by performers and, probably, by the composers, as well as the audiences of the time. I, & I think most people, would think that it is not appropriate during the perfromance of Wagner's mature opreas. At the end of the act, or the perfromance, then all hell can break loose as far as I am concerned.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

That's a reasonable and balanced view, Flosshilde, though I personally don't even like applause following arias it forces the performers to go into freeze-frame mode, and interrupts the flow of the drama.

[Mr Pee]

At the risk of re-opening the argument, there are times when applause is appropriate to the context, & times when it isn't. During bel canto operas applause is appropriate, & would be recognised as such by performers and, probably, by the composers, as well as the audiences of the time. I, & I think most people, would think that it is not appropriate during the perfromance of Wagner's mature opreas. At the end of the act, or the perfromance, then all hell can break loose as far as I am concerned.

[Mandryka]

That's a reasonable and balanced view, Flosshilde, though I personally don't even like applause following arias it forces the performers to go into freeze-frame mode, and interrupts the flow of the drama.

Agreed. I want to applaud at the end of an act and not before.

I've also often wondered aobut the effect on the performer, if they 'fail' to get a round at the end of their aria - won't it demoralise them for the rest of the performance. The tenor whose Celeste Aida...is received in silence has a very long evening ahead of him.....