tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665236978084294968.post4863550545105259210..comments2024-03-18T09:22:11.316-04:00Comments on OPERA OBSESSION: La gente paga: operas and their audiencesLucyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02549302523503271428noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665236978084294968.post-80088194150624004382012-02-27T23:03:21.304-05:002012-02-27T23:03:21.304-05:00That said, these productions are outliving Zeffire...That said, these productions are outliving Zeffirelli's. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?strayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05109343770835869181noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665236978084294968.post-19981166555423789882012-02-27T23:02:44.145-05:002012-02-27T23:02:44.145-05:00Thanks for your comment, Mark; you answer at least...Thanks for your comment, Mark; you answer at least part of a question I have often asked myself when overhearing conversations revealing surprising lack of knowledge (not to suggest that those wishing to enter hallowed halls of opera houses should pass tests in fire and water; I'm sure I have shocked many more senior opera-goers, and may again!) But I <i>am</i> surprised by the (apparently fairly prevalent??) perception of opera as a "luxury night out" experience rather than a demanding, exalting, potentially life-altering sort of experience.<br /><br />@John Some of these people haunt the Met's Family Circle; I call them Imprecating Opera Specters. I'm sure they haunt other areas of the house as well, but my informal eavesdropping surveys are the best for the cheap seats.Lucyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02549302523503271428noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665236978084294968.post-3433768794891081122012-02-27T22:44:47.867-05:002012-02-27T22:44:47.867-05:00A fascinating question: is the twentieth-century d...A fascinating question: is the twentieth-century definition of proper conduct at the opera house destined to be a historical aberration? (I sincerely hope not, but it'd make a good question to lead a conference paper with. Anyway.) I have no ready answers--not even ready speculations--as to what the answers to your questions regarding technology might be. <br /><br />As to your question about the underwriting of the more adventurous programming you mention, I decided to see if the Met's online database could help me find an answer. I was surprised, and fascinated, to discover that the answer is the same in each case: benefit sponsored by the Metropolitan Opera Guild for the production funds.Lucyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02549302523503271428noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665236978084294968.post-60676866474323175332012-02-27T22:22:06.627-05:002012-02-27T22:22:06.627-05:00(because the author decided to elaborate:)
Quoth ...(because the author decided to elaborate:)<br /><br />Quoth Lucy: "No one attending next season's run of [Parsifal] will expect to eat peanuts during the performance..."<br /><br />Possibly not even at the HD :-) <br /><br />The question I suppose I'm most interested in is how much technologically-based outreach methods -- Met/supertitles, HD casting, ubiquitous internet streaming -- have muddied the waters in terms of determining what actually makes up the opera audience demographic. And, of course, how much the success of that technology ends up changing opera itself. I also wonder if the Board-as-Conservative Cabal model is really all that operative anymore. Or ever was. For every Zeffirelli production Sybil Harrington ever underwrote at the Met, there was someone else footing the freight for Carmelites, Lulu, Wozzeck, Mahagonny, Parade -- all those John Dexter-driven critical triumphs of the same period. Who were those people?strayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05109343770835869181noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665236978084294968.post-37089128875306660732012-02-27T21:16:04.387-05:002012-02-27T21:16:04.387-05:00This comment has been removed by the author.strayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05109343770835869181noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665236978084294968.post-70789836030675309902012-02-27T09:23:13.760-05:002012-02-27T09:23:13.760-05:00I have certainly never encountered anyone, whether...<i>I have certainly never encountered anyone, whether in person or online, who has expressed a wish that programming were less adventurous.</i><br /><br />I have. It's not infrequent at Canadian Opera Company outreach events that somene gets up and describes a Tosca or similar that they saw 50 years ago and asks why we can't have more productions with nice scenery and costumes and hummable music. I've alo been told by box office staff that they see quite a few people who would happily see traviata or Boheme put on every night. I don't think such people are a majority and I certainly don't think opera companies should pander to them but they do exist and they probably make up a good chunk of the single ticket sales for many companies.Johnhttp://operaramblings.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665236978084294968.post-40891837995543248032012-02-27T08:34:37.319-05:002012-02-27T08:34:37.319-05:00I think there is another problem - there are doubt...I think there is another problem - there are doubtless many! - with these surveys. Not very long ago, I was talking to someone who works at a major opera house. Countering my wishes for what I considered to be a more musically interesting and, more to the point, varied diet, he told me that audience surveys informed the house that most of its custom came not from those who would otherwise be attending musical or indeed theatrical performances elsewhere in the city, but rather from people who saw a night at the opera as a luxury night out, a treat akin to a meal at an expensive restaurant, etc. The obvious retort, to which, astonishingly, the house seemed to have no answer, was that that was hardly surprising, given that it offered fare that was far more likely to attract such audiences, as opposed to those who might actually be interested in Gluck, Schoenberg, et al. I have certainly never encountered anyone, whether in person or online, who has expressed a wish that programming were less adventurous.Mark Berryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17693194967620507933noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665236978084294968.post-88326215931023830092012-02-26T18:02:03.679-05:002012-02-26T18:02:03.679-05:00You interest me strangely, as Sherlock Holmes woul...You interest me strangely, as Sherlock Holmes would say! The search--or quest, or impossible dream!--is indeed part of the joy... or one of the many joys opera has to offer.Lucyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02549302523503271428noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665236978084294968.post-23940145402494752062012-02-26T16:47:40.594-05:002012-02-26T16:47:40.594-05:00I agree that speaking of "entertainment"...I agree that speaking of "entertainment" and intellectual stimulation as though they were mutually exclusive can be misleading. If <i>Cosi</i> is well-sung with intelligent attention to the text, I am sure that it could not fail to be stimulating, although I confess that I am not sure how you could have a <i>Cosi</i> that was not at all political! The situation in Vienna of having several opera houses with full seasons is certainly enviable.Lucyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02549302523503271428noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665236978084294968.post-75606697375515369822012-02-26T15:52:37.125-05:002012-02-26T15:52:37.125-05:00You make a very interesting point. I've partic...You make a very interesting point. I've participated in a number of surveys for the Met and Lincoln Center, but I have no idea what the frequency/goals of such endeavors are. I'd be inclined to shy away from a description of opera as "consumer product," but more information about who is coming to opera and why (and if possible, about who is staying away, and why) could hardly fail to be stimulating.Lucyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02549302523503271428noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665236978084294968.post-25810176697625629622012-02-26T11:45:56.756-05:002012-02-26T11:45:56.756-05:00My sense is that next season at the Met will be th...My sense is that next season at the Met will be the most European in its history. We will get to see how we like it.<br /><br />One of the glories of opera is that it can be all things to all people. I think I want it all: great music, great beauty, great singing, great acting, moving, emotional theater in all its wonderful operatic glory. The search is part of the joy.Dr.Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02298893523780056481noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665236978084294968.post-80152163973973138802012-02-26T10:54:29.630-05:002012-02-26T10:54:29.630-05:00I live in Vienna and productions here tend to be s...I live in Vienna and productions here tend to be something half the way between a typically German regietheater and a traditional one, due to the (for me) excellent repertoire system. I saw last night Cosi' Fan Tutte in a old production by De Simone. Elegant, funny, intelligent....without tryintg to send me a political message of any kind. I enjoyed the beatiful music, the marvellous libretto sung perfectly and the, at last, correspondence between what was said/sung and what was shown on stage. It does not mean that my brain had gone to sleep, just that sometimes sheer entertainment can be very stimulating.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665236978084294968.post-48077937587203803352012-02-26T06:11:06.198-05:002012-02-26T06:11:06.198-05:00I remain puzzled by how little appears to be known...I remain puzzled by how little appears to be known about the "opera audience" or the potential "opera audience". Apart from a few rather useless statistics about age distribution the answer seems to be "not much". Certainly nobody seems to do serious market research of the kind almost any purveyor of a consumer product should. Maybe this is because the management doesn't care much. GDs are not accountable to the paying public in Munich or New York. In one case the GD is a branch of the Civil Service, in the other beholden to a small number of very rich people whose views can easily be ascertained. As always he who pays the piper calls the tune. Maybe it says something about rich New Yorkers that generally I prefer the taste of German civil servants.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com