770 replies to this topic

[Jenny_tyr]

Earlier this week, I attended an early evening performance of Mozart's Requiem – you'd think that people at that sort of thing would be fairly well behaved, right? Wrong! Mobile phones went off, incredibly, and not far into it a baby started crying…I mean, hello?!? First of all, who brings a baby to a performance like that, and secondly, what kind of staff lets someone with a baby in? I can understand people bringing babies to a Christmas concert at church, but to a classical music concert in a concert hall? Really! Argh!

[Matthew Winn]

Earlier this week, I attended an early evening performance of Mozart's Requiem –
[snip]
First of all, who brings a baby to a performance like that

Listening to music is reputed to make you more intelligent, and when you consider that the baby is the spawn of people who think it's OK to take a baby to a concert it's clear that the unfortunate baby needs all the intellectual help it can get.

[Michael H]

At a performance of "An Inspector Calls" last Tuesday the theatre was packed with students, aged 13 or 14. I think there must have been only a dozen "regular" visitors in the stalls. They made an infernal noise at the beginning and the announcement about switching of phones could hardly be heard. My friend and I feared for the worse, but when the show started all of them went quiet and the performance was only disturbed twice by a mobile phone, to much hissing and annoyance of the teenagers. Of course the reaction was sometimes quite different; more laughs than usual and more shrieks when the house collapses, but all due to them really watching the play. So, we were really pleasantly surprised, certainly after reading this whole discussion.  

I was lucky enough to be one of the supernumaries in this production, when it came to the Lowry in Salford Quays back in 2005.

I can remember the line that went something like "One Eva Smith has gone, but there are millions and millions and millions of Evas ... and John Smiths" got a "wahey!" from one weekday matinee audience.

[curzon]

Earlier this week, I attended an early evening performance of Mozart's Requiem – you'd think that people at that sort of thing would be fairly well behaved, right? Wrong! Mobile phones went off, incredibly, and not far into it a baby started crying…I mean, hello?!? First of all, who brings a baby to a performance like that, and secondly, what kind of staff lets someone with a baby in? I can understand people bringing babies to a Christmas concert at church, but to a classical music concert in a concert hall? Really! Argh!

Classical music audiences are just as bad as other audiences, unfortunately. Worst examples of my experience
1) Large numbers of patrons heading for the exits after Renee Fleming's Ave Maria in "Otello" in Chicago. No more famous arias to come, presumably? Might as well go home, then!!
2) A mobile phone playing Fur Elise during the opening chords of "Rheingold" despite two announcements about switching off phones before the performance.
3) Loud plot explanations during the opening scene of "Otello". Well the story is really, really complicated!
4) Madama Butterfly almost completely scuppered by members of the audience loudly auditioning for one of opera's many consumptive roles. Amazingly, when I watched the same performance on TV, the engineers had almost completely filtered out the noise of constant coughing!
These are just a few examples - I could go on for weeks....

Seb

[JonnyBoy]

I tend to find older audiences more disruptive than the youth of today.  Tonight at a performance of Mrs Warren's Profession in Salford, I had a man behind me doing a loud knowing grunt whenever he recognised a Shaw line he knew or found funny; a woman was nearby who laughed at a lot of lines (but not a conventional laugh - it sounded like she kept vomiting inside her closed mouth then inhaling the vomit); every few minutes another lady unwrapped boiled sweets very noisily.  All three suspects were over 60.  Do people with these annoying grunts and laughs really not realise that they are disturbing others around them?  I'd be so embarrassed if I was inflicting such ghastly sounds onto audience members.

[CallB]

I tend to find older audiences more disruptive than the youth of today. Tonight at a performance of Mrs Warren's Profession in Salford, I had a man behind me doing a loud knowing grunt whenever he recognised a Shaw line he knew or found funny; a woman was nearby who laughed at a lot of lines (but not a conventional laugh - it sounded like she kept vomiting inside her closed mouth then inhaling the vomit); every few minutes another lady unwrapped boiled sweets very noisily. All three suspects were over 60. Do people with these annoying grunts and laughs really not realise that they are disturbing others around them? I'd be so embarrassed if I was inflicting such ghastly sounds onto audience members.

[CallB]

Sorry I forgot to attach my post.
I went to see La Cage Aux Folles last night with my sister.  This wasnt so much badly behaved as extremely irritating.  i dont want to appear a bit of a snob and bore but I think the coach picking up the X Factor audience went to the wrong building.  I hate that whooping loud audience, and we were surrounded.  Every time JB came out in another costume change, there were whoops and guffaws, every time a slightly risque joke was told, whoops and guffaws, cheers.  There was a clap along to every single song (apart from the ballads).  There was cheering whenever someone said something slightly witty.  Everytime the butler/maid came on, loud racuous laughter and whoops.
Also, people came in during the overture with big buckets of beer.
I am actually interested to know if anyone has seen this with out JB and were the audience only like this with him - I fear that he is attracting large parties of whooping women.
Added to this we decided to get autographs which I am not normally keen on but I also really liked Simon and I had my Cole Porter JB cd. We were waiting in the rain and Simon came out and was really sweet and thanked us for waiting and getting wet.  Then JB's "people" said Mr Barrowman may not sign and he doesnt want photos taken with people.  Is this normal for him?  He then appeared and announced that if it rained he would stop signing and go.  He went around the crowd, not speaking and left.  As I said, I am not a keen pursuer of autographs although I wait at the Royal Ballet stage door and the dancers are lovely and down to earth and chat for ages.  I suppose I've heard he is very much like this so felt a bit short changed.  I know JB fans are going to come out in droves and defend him so I'll be interested to hear opinions.