Dress code in continental opera houses?

[jean]

I think a woman can always get away with jeans, so long as your top is slightly less casual - when I'm travelling I always like to have something in silk because it's so lightweight.

In Italy, women dress up much more than they do in this country to go to work, or even to go shopping - I don't think they dress up any more to go to the opera. But when I went regularly to the Fenice, I was aware that quite a lot of the audience were resident Americans and different conventions applied.

I used to notice that Italian women tended not to wear hats to weddings - the hairstyle was more important and mustn't get crushed.

My Italian women friends say how relaxed they feel in England because they don't have to wear all that makeup all the time. I am never sure whether that is a compliment or not.

[french frank]

I think a woman can always get away with jeans, so long as your top is slightly less casual

Hence, less of a dilemma, presumably? I had to go to a wedding in France and broke my arm just before. I had to travel, rucksack an' all, with my arm in plaster and unable to get my 'wedding top' over the plaster: I took a T-shirt and bought a cachmere (had to look up spelling) jacket with wide sleeves in the town market.

[Flosshilde]

Surely, when the house lights go down & everyone is concentrating on the stage it doesn't matter what you wear - nobody can see it. I prefer to wear trousers that aren't too constricting when I'm sitting, a jacket I can slip off easily if it gets too warm (not during the actual performance) and nothing too constricting round the neck (although I've often wished to put something very constricting round the necks of noisy neighbours).

(In Italy it's been my experience that women wear the sparkliest top they have, overloaded with sequins, and a fur coat - in the middle of summer)

[french frank]

In short (possibly), if the concert/opera house has a known dress code, one should probably respect it (or not go). But if the people you sit next to don't object to what you're wearing and you don't object to what they're wearing, what's the problem?

Being usually a scruffy traveller - and looking like one - I've NEVER had any hostile looks (or even second looks!) from anyone.

If one's worried, learn the phrase for "dress code" in several languages and ask: but Europe is so used to tourists I think very few turn a hair. I've also never been outraged by anyone's concert behaviour while abroad …

[Ferretfancy]

The force that drives the English middle class is always anxiety, they worry about their wives, their houses, their cars, their children their wives and their husbands.

To go somewhere or do something without seeking tacit approval is impossible for them.

All this is exemplified by this absurd discussion, no wonder the young find classical music and opera boring and old fashioned, get a grip folks!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The force that drives the English middle class is always anxiety, they worry about their wives, their houses, their cars, their children their wives and their husbands.

They really do worry as much as that?

[MrGongGong]

I have spent a lot of time telling folks that
NO you don't have to wear a suit and a tie to go to the ROH
NO you don't have to dress up like a 1950's office worker to listen to orchestral music
NO you don't have to use a secret set of words to listen to music
NO you don't have to spend lots of money to go to hear this music (it's cheaper than football)
NO you don't have to wear a fancy frock to listen to music
If you are a plasterer it's a good idea to get changed
Same if you work with livestock or have noisy piercings (I think this explains the bow ties mr Alpen? )

BUT people who are more bothered by what the person sitting next to them looks like than what is happening in front of them can safely be ignored

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I have spent a lot of time telling folks that
NO you don't have to wear a suit and a tie to go to the ROH
NO you don't have to dress up like a 1950's office worker to listen to orchestral music
NO you don't have to use a secret set of words to listen to music
NO you don't have to spend lots of money to go to hear this music (it's cheaper than football)
NO you don't have to wear a fancy frock to listen to music
If you are a plasterer it's a good idea to get changed
Same if you work with livestock or have noisy piercings (I think this explains the bow ties mr Alpen? )

BUT people who are more bothered by what the person sitting next to them looks like than what is happening in front of them can safely be ignored

Too much caffeine, methinks.

[jean]

The force that drives the English middle class is always anxiety, they worry about their wives...

They're exclusively male, then?

[jean]

(In Italy it's been my experience that women wear the sparkliest top they have, overloaded with sequins, and a fur coat - in the middle of summer)

They don't wear fur coats in the middle of Summer, though I concede that they may wear them sometimes in winter when it isn't cold Younger women don't wear them much at all.

The most distracting thing to me in this country is when the person next to me, however clothed, hasn't washed his hair for a while (it's always an elderly man. Thank heavens for baldness!)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The most distracting thing to me in this country is when the person next to me, however clothed, hasn't washed his hair for a while (it's always an elderly man. Thank heavens for baldness!)

[Flosshilde]

NO you don't have to wear a fancy frock to listen to music

But if Dave2002 thinks that's the answer to his problem, why not?

The most distracting thing to me in this country is when the person next to me, however clothed, hasn't washed his hair for a while (it's always an elderly man. Thank heavens for baldness!)

Don't wear black then, & the dandruff won't show

What about women who are doused in perfume - or does yours drown it out?

[jean]

What about women who are doused in perfume - or does yours drown it out?

Not many wear it to concerts, do they? I don't wear it anywhere as a rule.

But I do have some wonderful Oil of Frankinscence I sometines wear to High Mass. It confuses people.

[visualnickmos]

The most distracting thing to me in this country is when the person next to me, however clothed, hasn't washed his hair for a while (it's always an elderly man. Thank heavens for baldness!)

That is gross to use the vernacular

But even grosser (more gross?) are people who really need to invest in a deodorant, or even nastier, a bar of soap or shower gel.

[Ferretfancy]

[QUOTE=Eine Alpensinfonie;516397]They really do worry as much as that?[/QUOTE

Yes, even in duplicate!