Julie 2 Milner Posted October 11, 2012 Share Posted October 11, 2012 Porthesia that must be horrid for you.We were at our local Symphony Orchestra on Sun and it was baking in there. At one point I really thought Iwas going to break out in coughing and we were right in the middle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porthesia Posted October 12, 2012 Share Posted October 12, 2012 The Tunes do work rather well, I can keep one going for ages!! It has become a nervous or psychological problem now. It is worse when it gets hot which is why I think the 2nd half of a perfomance could be more problematical for me. I can recommed the fold up fans that ladies used to carry. They are very effective on hot days. My mother in law bought me one from Malta, it is modern but still rather pretty, unfortunately I seem to have misplaced it. A fashion item that should be re-introduced, perhaps the theatres could sell souveners - feathery ones for Swan Lake etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zxDaveM Posted October 12, 2012 Share Posted October 12, 2012 newly discovered annoyance (as of last night) - the person behind you, cracking their nuckles - to them its at their knees - to you, its 4" from your ears! Grrrr! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted October 12, 2012 Share Posted October 12, 2012 Oh, that reminds me of a (classical) concert I went to at the Festival Hall many years ago. I had a coach party behind me (can't remember how I knew this, but I did discover they were), and one of them, an elderly gentleman, spent much of one piece rubbing, or possibly scratching, his hands up and down his trousers. I assume he had circulation difficulties or something, but it was unbelievable how much noise you could make doing that in an environment where you can usually hear a pin drop! Thankfully, I've forgotten what the other irritations from his companions were. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willie Posted October 12, 2012 Share Posted October 12, 2012 Whispering. During a performance of Giselle, I sat next to a very young girl and her mother. Throughout the performance, the mother explained every scene to her child in a whisper. Near the end of the final act the little girl whispered to her mother "where’s she [Giselle] going?" and her mother whispered back "she’s got to go." I looked at the little girl. Her eyes were focused on the stage and she seemed to understand the scene without further explanation. Funny thing -- I remember very little about that performance of Giselle, but I do remember the wonderful, intimate interaction between mother and daughter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toursenlair Posted October 12, 2012 Share Posted October 12, 2012 actually, I don't want to seem cranky (or elitist or snobbish or any of those other things!), but I wouldn't consider that wonderful and intimate interaction. It would have driven me crazy. I was at a performance of Fille one time where I took five-year-old twins who had never been to the ballet before but were as good as gold. Behind me a mother was giving a play-by-play to her son. "LOOK! There's a pony!!! Can you see the pony??" It's pretty hard to MISS the pony in Fille. I felt like turning around and saying, "He sees the damn pony, ok?". The kid himself never let out a peep. She kept this up the whole show, even to the point of commenting on Lise's beautiful necklace in the last pas de deux. As if an 8 year old boy would care. I think kids are more capable of understanding a ballet than we give them credit for. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willie Posted October 12, 2012 Share Posted October 12, 2012 actually, I don't want to seem cranky (or elitist or snobbish or any of those other things!), but I wouldn't consider that wonderful and intimate interaction. It would have driven me crazy. Usually, such a thing would drive me crazy. I’m not the sentimental type. Perhaps you had to be there to appreciate the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porthesia Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 My bone of contention was the lady (middle aged) who giggled at a particular movemnt by the swans and when the cygnets came on bounced along in time with the music. She wasn't in time either! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie 2 Milner Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 Last night I went to see Hazel O'Connor in Tunbridge Wells. We were in the row from hell.lol We were at the end and 2 couples arrived late. The first were 20 mins late and shuffled in. Then the next couple arrived a further 10 mins later. Of course then it transpired the other couple were in the wrong seats so further shuffling. Then they decided to sort their phones out, whispering all the time. By then there was only about 10 mins of the support act left. So to second half and Hazel herself. Couple at the furthest point from the aisle were of course the last back just as it started. Then the guy proceeded to go in and out in and out. Now being a generous type I said to my hubby maybe he wasn't well but the theatre was only 1/3 full so there were hundreds of seats he could have sat in not to disturb people. To top it off the lady in front decided she couldn't do without her phone. So though she had it under her coat she checked in very frequently. Fortunately at a concert none of this matters too much but must admit this thread came straight to my mind:-) Oh and if there are any Hazel O'Connor fans here she was absolutely amazing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxi4ballet Posted October 16, 2012 Share Posted October 16, 2012 I can recommed the fold up fans that ladies used to carry. They are very effective on hot days. My mother in law bought me one from Malta, it is modern but still rather pretty, unfortunately I seem to have misplaced it. A fashion item that should be re-introduced, perhaps the theatres could sell souveners - feathery ones for Swan Lake etc. I use the programme! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toursenlair Posted October 17, 2012 Share Posted October 17, 2012 article in the Guardian on this topic today : http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/theatreblog/2012/oct/15/theatre-coughing-audience Coughing at the theatre is a year-round British sport. As the theatre critic James Agate once observed: "Long experience has taught me that in England nobody goes to the theatre unless he or she has bronchitis." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna C Posted October 17, 2012 Share Posted October 17, 2012 That made me chuckle because I did once go to the theatre whilst recovering from bronchitis. But to be fair it was panto on Boxing Day evening. DH and I had both had flu, mine developed into bronchitis but his developed into double pneumonia which hospitalised him! He came home on Christmas Eve and we had a really miserable Christmas Day. DD had had to stay with my parents and as she was only 5 or 6 she begged me to come to the panto. Fortunately I wasn't coughing much and it was a loud panto to hide the occasional cough! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toursenlair Posted October 17, 2012 Share Posted October 17, 2012 I went to a performance in Stuttgart once with bronchitis that later turned into pneumonia. Since I had paid not only for my ballet ticket but for a trip from Toronto to Germany just to see the performance, I definitely wasn't going to miss it. I found the only thing that suppressed my cough was ... brandy. So I had a small bottle of it of which I took surreptitious sips during the performance and a good swig at intermissions just to be on the safe side. The people I spent the intermissions with, to whom I had just been introduced, were, I am sure, convinced that I had a serious drinking problem! 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bangorballetboy Posted October 18, 2012 Share Posted October 18, 2012 I went to a performance in Stuttgart once with bronchitis that later turned into pneumonia. Since I had paid not only for my ballet ticket but for a trip from Toronto to Germany just to see the performance, I definitely wasn't going to miss it. I found the only thing that suppressed my cough was ... brandy. So I had a small bottle of it of which I took surreptitious sips during the performance and a good swig at intermissions just to be on the safe side. The people I spent the intermissions with, to whom I had just been introduced, were, I am sure, convinced that I had a serious drinking problem! Medicinal purposes... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mallinson Posted October 18, 2012 Share Posted October 18, 2012 Just came across this piece in the Guardian about dressing for the theatre and ENO's dressing down campaign. It also refers back to an earlier article by Rupert Myers which almost persuaded me to run out and buy myself a dinner jacket to wear at Covent Garden. The comparison he makes between putting on your football team's colours to go to a match and wearing a dinner jacket (to chime with the orchestra) at the opera is stretching things I think but an M&S dinner suit can be had for £60, whereas to dress properly for football is much more expensive. You need your Arsenal sweatshirt (£50), pants (£30), coat (£60), beanie (£20) and scarf (£15), which all comes to £175. I'm relieved to find that ballet-going is such a cheap pursuit. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted October 18, 2012 Share Posted October 18, 2012 Talking of which, there was an article in the Evening Standard today ... let me see if I can find it. Yes, here we are: http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/arsenal-chelsea-and-tottenham-top-league-for-ticket-costs-8216471.html?origin=internalSearch So a top-price ticket to Arsenal is approximately equivalent to a top-price ticket to see the Royal Ballet in Swan Lake (or a pair of tickets for a mixed bill), but a bottom-price one could probably get you about 4 tickets to Swan Lake. Very enlightening. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Macmillan Posted October 18, 2012 Share Posted October 18, 2012 John: Judging by the Evening Standard article that Alison has found, I'd say that the ROH equivalents of the programme, pie, and cup of tea (£8.30 in all) would prove more expensive but, as you say, there's the kit you have to buy ...... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mallinson Posted October 18, 2012 Share Posted October 18, 2012 So the cheapest ticket for Premier League footie is £23 whereas for premier league ballet (at least at the ROH) it's £4. But you can't buy pies at the Opera House. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnneMarriott Posted October 19, 2012 Share Posted October 19, 2012 So the cheapest ticket for Premier League footie is £23 whereas for premier league ballet (at least at the ROH) it's £4. But you can't buy pies at the Opera House. Perhaps a petition to the caterers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bangorballetboy Posted October 19, 2012 Share Posted October 19, 2012 Some of you may know that I'm a Chelsea season ticket holder. I thought it might be interesting to note that the price of my season ticket, which is the second level, has been frozen for the last two years (and prior to the last increase was frozen for three years). This is a result of Chelsea's policy of increasing the top price season tickets (which are mostly corporate) to subsidise the lower priced ones. Does this sound familiar to ROH goers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie 2 Milner Posted October 19, 2012 Share Posted October 19, 2012 We are Arsenal season ticket holders:-) Hmm I may wear the shirt but not sure about an Arsenal coat:-) We changed our seasons to cheaper ones. But yes footie tickets are very expensive. Also if not a season holder the scrabble for tickets can be frantic esp for the top teams. Re pies! You may not get a pie at the ROH but a much better choc ice cream.lol Corporate at football matches is a constant irritant when, after half time many stay drinking rather than back to the match. At least that doesn't happen at ROH. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stirrups36 Posted October 23, 2012 Share Posted October 23, 2012 I went this week to a performance from Dance United at The Place. The audience were mainly teenagers. Many of the performers were ex-offenders or NEETs (not in education mostly having been permanently excluded from school). Absolute silence during the performances, Much applause and whooping at the end of the performances. Now that is how to behave during a performance. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted October 25, 2012 Author Share Posted October 25, 2012 http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/theatreblog/2012/oct/19/twitter-mid-performance-tweet-sorrow I picked up this blog about tweeting in performances yesterday. Today on twitter (!) a dancer from Australian Ballet has been widely retweeted and has made some excellent and thought provoking points. I love her opening salvo: "Is it OK to use Twitter mid-performance? I'm sorry, but if the audience is allowed, I'm allowed to tweet onstage too" She follows up with: "...we see EVERY flicker of light: reflecting off glasses, little red lights from cameras...the glow of multiple phone screens? Dangerous. " And finally: "(Side note on cameras: I love that people want to take photos of us, but even with flash off, a red light flashes. Distracting & dangerous!)" Should I, as a spectacle wearer, feel guilty about sitting on the front row? I had never realised that dancers on stage could see light reflecting off my glasses. This really is food for thought. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted October 25, 2012 Share Posted October 25, 2012 I love her opening salvo: "Is it OK to use Twitter mid-performance? I'm sorry, but if the audience is allowed, I'm allowed to tweet onstage too" Yes!!! Hmm, I know quite a few front-row sitters who wear glasses. I think maybe compulsory contact lenses would be going a bit far, but yes, the rest I can understand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxi4ballet Posted October 25, 2012 Share Posted October 25, 2012 Reminds me of the Olympic diving competition when Tom Daley was allowed to re-dive after being distracted by so many flashbulbs going off... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farfallina Posted October 25, 2012 Share Posted October 25, 2012 Last time the Bolshoi was in London I watched one of their cello players texting like crazy - he only put his device away when the conductor was ready to start the performance. The sound of the last note prior to the break was still in the air when that guy got back to his toy.... Why does it bother some people when the audience applaudes the moment they see something exciting in a ballet ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted October 25, 2012 Author Share Posted October 25, 2012 I try not to let applause bother me but I find it can really ruin the moment for me when I am wrapped up in something really emotional - eg act 3 of R&J. I'll quite happily applaud away if there are specific applause breaks. I always wait (when I can see) for the conductor to put his baton down before I start applauding at the end of each act too. The music is part of the performance. So why then, do I clap along to the end of Fille and cheer when Will Mossop says Bah Gum? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toursenlair Posted October 25, 2012 Share Posted October 25, 2012 Speaking of applause during the performance, do you know the story about Fokine, who was ferociously opposed to applause disrupting the dramatic flow of a ballet and hated the way late 19th century ballet set up variations as applause machines. In 1909 during the Ballets Russes' first visit to Paris, he was performing in his own ballet Cleopatre. He was a slave with whom Cleopatra was having her way on a couch while the other slaves danced around in a bacchanalian frenzy. This entertained the audience so much that when it ended they wouldn't stop clapping. The dancers, who had run off stage as per the choreography, thought they'd better come back to take a bow. From his couch Fokine could see them lining up in the wings, so he leapt out of Cleopatra's embraces and stalked toward them making wild tiger motions to stop them coming back on to TAKE A BOW (shock horror) and then had to find a way that made dramatic sense for him to go back to Cleopatra. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted October 25, 2012 Share Posted October 25, 2012 So why then, do I clap along to the end of Fille and cheer when Will Mossop says Bah Gum? Because that's not applauding, it's clapping? Katherine, no, I hadn't heard that one. Thanks for relating it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farfallina Posted October 25, 2012 Share Posted October 25, 2012 good point, Janet. I didn't think of the emotionally touching ballets when posting this. During them I'm busy fighting to hold back the tears depending on who is dancing. I probably had the more fun ones in mind like Don Q - there I think both dancers and audience can really give it it all. Not all of the smaller parts will be back for the final curtain call. So, I like to believe they appreciate instant feedback which I'm happy to supply. Must have been 2007 when Osipova/Vasiliev danced DQ in Munich - sheere excitement on stage and among the audience - at least 4 curtain calls on the intervalls and massive applause at the end. Then two nights later it was Alexandrova/Filin's turn and the Munichs delivered only a polite level of applause during the performance and you could tell the dancers were slightly irritated - I thought "oh no - they don't like it !!!" - I was so wrong - this audience saved it all for last - enormous applause at the end - people just couldn't stop - they would leave through one door just to come back in through another door and continue applauding... I'm not really sure which one I enjoyed more, but I think I still rather go for immediate reaction... Katherine, I love that littel story - didn't know it. Guess Nurejev probably is on the other end of this scale - just imagining he loved the audience response... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billboyd Posted October 28, 2012 Share Posted October 28, 2012 (edited) Last night a young child coughed all through Swan Lake Act 4. Beggars belief. Edited to add - This was at the ROH Edited October 28, 2012 by billboyd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jm365 Posted October 28, 2012 Share Posted October 28, 2012 I have been following this thread with interest and amusement, thinking how lucky I have been in more than sixty years of theatre going not to have encountered much in the way of bad behaviour. And then, last Thursday at Sadlers Wells for the BRB triple bill, there were three young girls just behind me in the Lower Amphi who came back after the second interval with what seemed to be hot, silver-wrapped sandwiches that stank of onions. Not the perfect accompaniment to The Dream, completely destroyed any atmosphere created by the excellent performers. A whole new experience that I could well have done without! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sim Posted October 28, 2012 Share Posted October 28, 2012 I have just spent a long time reading this thread, and I'm very surprised at some of the almost insulting generalisations in it. Yes I am middle-aged. No I am not overweight. Nor am I haughty. Sometimes I dress up to go to the ROH, sometimes I go in jeans. Yes, you do find some nasty, snobby people at the ballet, but they are in a very small minority indeed...and you find nasty people anywhere and everywhere. I've been going to see ballet in various parts of the world for almost 50 years, and to say that 'ballet audiences are mostly made up of middle-aged, overweight, haughty women' is ludicrous, and it would appear to come from someone who has not been to see too many ballets, otherwise they would know that this is not the case. I am originally from NY, so I have no class ( ). It is nothing to do with class, it is simply a matter of good manners. I believe that wanting to sit in a theatre watching ballet, opera, theatre, other types of dance or a film without having to listen to people talk, see the lights from their phones, smell their food and drink or listen to the rustling of their sweet wrappers is a perfectly normal thing. If asking someone to stop talking when the performers are onstage, or to stop making noise with their sweet wrappers, or to turn off the light from their mobiles makes you a snob, that is ridiculous. I ask because it bothers me and detracts from my enjoyment of what is happening onstage (not to mention the incredible and baffling disrespect to the performers who have worked so hard to please us). I fail to see why, when I have paid money to escape into another world, my illusions have to be shattered by rudeness or selfishness, and if I talk about it or express dissatisfaction I certainly don't expect to be classed as a snob! All I want is to be able to see and hear in peace....and if that makes me a fat, middled-aged snob then so be it!! 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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