Applause during Opera

[Mr Pee]

Greatly looking forward to Tosca from Covent Garden on Christmas Eve, one of my all-time favourite operas. But I prefer to listen to it as a studio recording, on CD.

Why? Because I will be spared the inevitable applause from the audience after the main arias. To me, it completely breaks the spell, and reduces Operatic performance to a cabaret turn. It happens nowhere else- the audience for Hamlet do not break out into applause at the end of "To be or not to be..", however finely delivered. It may be appropriate in, say, Rossini, or Donizetti- or even Verdi- for arias which vocal virtuosity is highlighted, but in the case Puccini, an outbreak of clapping and "bravos" at the end of "Vissi d'arte", for example, is to my ears at least, completely out of place.

Applause should be saved for the end of the act.

It's one of the attractions of Wagnerian opera that the nature of the music does not allow for it. Can you imagine loud clapping at the end of Alberich's Curse? Or the Love Duet from Tristan?

This is one operatic convention that I would like to see consigned to the history books. I shall watch Tosca on Christmas Eve- but with one finger poised over the mute button.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I do agree, though at least Puccini made it more difficult for audience members lacking self-control. His operas are mostly through-composed in the Wagnerian mould, rather than as in the um-chug arias of earlier 19th century Italian operas.
But if opera is bad for audience intrusions, ballet is much worse, where the audiences appear to ignore the music altogether, applauding an impressive lift or throw mid-music. They might just as well talk all the way through.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

One of the arguments used to justify intrusions of this kind is that such applause was what the composer "would have expected". Mozart even told his father that he liked it.
But using the inconsiderate behaviour of the past does not justify its continuation for all eternity.

[alywin]

But if opera is bad for audience intrusions, ballet is much worse, where the audiences appear to ignore the music altogether, applauding an impressive lift or throw mid-music. They might just as well talk all the way through.

(How is it that I can prepare a complete answer, the board auto-saves it and then I can't get it back when clicking on "Post" goes wrong?! Oh well, second time lucky:) )

Or they wait until the ballerina is halfway through the dreaded 32 fouettés and then start applauding (and continue until she finishes). Recent complaints about audiences at the Royal Ballet's Sleeping Beauty talking right through the entr'acte between Acts II and III turned out to be completely justified. And I've been to performances of English National Ballet's Swan Lake - where they run Acts I and II together - where the audience has just talked right across the Act II Scène music.

I tend to agree with the OP. I've seen performances of Tosca both where "Vissi d'arte" has been greeted with tumultuous applause and where there's been virtual silence (no reflection on the singer's abilities!) at the end. I know which one I preferred. And my favourite rendition of Tatiana's Letter Scene was also received in complete silence.