Just a short note on the Caramoor Puritani earlier tonight...an enriching time had by all, save perhaps for the "classical music date" assholes in front of me who talked almost nonstop for the entire performance and were deaf to my polite shushes. Just so everyone's on the same page: if you're sitting on grass, light talking/other activities are tolerated. If you're in a chair and under a tent, even if you can hear crickets, standard concert hall etiquette prevails. This is understood, right?
Anyhow. Leading the Orchestra of St. Luke's, Will Crutchfeld at the podium set the tone for a finely detailed and quite thoughtful evening. Sumi Jo tore it up to satisfaction as Elvira, although for my money the real stand out was Barry Banks--I'm a bit regretful now I missed his big Pasquale stand in earlier in the year. He really gives the bel canto the full throttle treatment, which I think would have made up for parts of Ernesto where I'll admit I thought JDF a tad too precious. A substantial honorable mention goes to Daniel Mobbs' wonderfully sensitive Giorgio (or whatever the character that has the really nice aria at the beginning of the second act is called). Weston Hurt as Riccardo was ultimately a tad plain for my taste, but no denying a nice sound.
The rest were strong as well. Naturally, one has to be ok with that amount of bel canto to enjoy, but I am, and I did. And Caramoor is real purdy, if you haven't been. This is just the warm-up mind you...I hope to have my first Poodles experience there on the 22nd.
7 comments:
"If you're in a chair and under a tent, even if you can hear crickets, standard concert hall etiquette prevails."
You're assuming that they know what that is...
The guy behind me enjoyed Sumi and Barry so much he let out ear-splitting whistles, as if he was attending a taping of American Idol. I am a regular Met standee and have experienced a lot...but never this. So I operatically screamed right in his face (during the applause) for him to cut it out. I must have reminded him of his mother,(or grandmother) because he stopped immediately and never whistled again. Very satisfying. Very good Opera too.
Canadienne:
Indeed, the cruelest blow was that they didn't even applaud at the end. They just sort of got to their feet and continued chatting away.
Henry:
Indeed, when people have no concert etiquette it isn't that they are failing to conform to some mysterious and elitist rules. It is just that they are blithely ignoring the obvious standard for behavior set around them, which is a expectation made of people participating in some sort of cultural event, classical or otherwise. And that standard has nothing to do with wearing a monocle or being an elitist prig. It is first and foremost about not fucking it up for the people around you who are trying to concentrate on the music.
Secondarily, it is about showing some semblance of appreciation or gratitude for the performers, perhaps by imitating how the 1000s of human beings surrounding you are responding. But maybe we should just work on number one first.
P.S. I looked at the blog in explorer on a Mac for the first time and it is really f'd up. Have others been dealing with this? Not sure if/when I'll fix it, but sorry anyhow if you've been dealing with it...
Alex - Your blog looks great on the Safari browser on my iMac. (I have explorer on the iMac, too, and it never looked good for anything on the few times I tried it.)
I was glad to see your mention of Daniel Mobbs. He appeared at the Baltimore Opera a couple of times a few years ago. He started out as a dancer then switched to singing--and it looked like the dancing experience paid off in how he moved himself about the stage. I wonder if you noticed anything in that regard. He had a fine voice, too, of course.
Clayton:
Thanks for the intel on Mobbs...the perf in question was only semistaged and half assedly semistaged at that. Plus I was in the back row without my glasses--so I can't speak much to physical presence.
Save for the smoov moves of La Jo, of course. Lord knows that business was visible from Row JJ.
I thought about this post last night when I was attending an open air concert given by Bryn Terfel (and violinist Chloe Hanslip). I say given - we paid for the tickets and I'm sure they got a handsome fee. Premium deckchairs I was in; many others were in 'blanket on the ground'.
In front and behind were chatterers. Incessant chatterers. Pointing out that the La Forza del destino overture is the Stella Artois advert music (it is, or was, but this was billed an 'Opera Gala', not a 'Your favourite classical music from the ads Gala'). Premature applause - eg before the end of Thais Meditation.
I took guerilla action. In retrospect it was a misjudgement. I decided that as the people imediately behind and in front of me were intent on spoiling my enjoyment by their twittering I would light a cigarette. This was open air, and there were no 'no smoking' signs. It certainly annoyed the people in front of me. Unfortunately, it also annoyed the woman next to my partner, so at the interval I apologised profusely to her and explained that because so many people were talking, I thought ignorant and anti-social behaviour was the order of the day, and I should join in, but I promised I wouldn't repeat the stunt. She said she understood my reasoning and smiled warmly. What it meant of course was that I surrendered the moral high ground and had less of a leg to stand on when glaring at the non-stop talkers who continued in the second half - and then left immediately after the 'last piece' and long before Bryn said "We have a couple of encores..."
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