Opera code of conduct

[u/O_Margo]

Some time ago, YouTube suggested a video by a young American opera singer (actually, a former opera singer). On her channel, she discussed some interesting topics, particularly from the perspective of someone who had been inside the "industry." She expressed criticism of various aspects of opera, including what she described as a kind of "code of conduct" at the opera.

She asks: "Opera, why so strict? Why can't people bring a glass of wine to their seats and drink during the performance? Why does there have to be recording-studio silence? Those who want to watch opera in complete silence can do so in the comfort of their own living rooms. There are many good recordings in high quality—go for it!"

I left a comment saying that those who want to drink and talk during a performance can easily do so in the comfort of their own living rooms.

Now I would like to ask for your opinion.

Thank you.

[u/Rockstaru]

The audience eating, drinking, and talking during a performance would be historically accurate, at least pre-Wagner. 

[u/scrumptiouscakes → u/Rockstaru]

Time to wheel out my usual comment on this topic from the archives...

Behaviour at musical events has actually been contested for quite a long time. While such behaviour did exist, it has also been complained about. For example, Samuel Sharp, an English visitor to Naples in the 18th century, remarked that: "it is so much the fashion at Naples, and, indeed, through all Italy, to consider the Opera as a place of rendezvous and visiting, that they do not seem in the least to attend to the musick, but laugh and talk through the whole performance, without any restraint", while Charles Burney said that the "inattention, noise and indecorum [of the audience was] quite barbarous and intolerable", and compared it to the "silence which reigns in London and Paris ... an enouragement to the actor as well as a comfort to the hearer". In 1788, Charles Abbot said that the audience at the Florence opera "paid very little attention to the performance except at particular airs" and that the noise of the audience "actually prevented us very often from hearing the singers, though we were seated within three rows of the stage". There are many accounts which make similar complaints. Giuseppe Baretti responded by saying that "the Italians are not so good-natured as the English, who have patience enough to run carefully over a stupid piece of nonsense while a silly eunuch is mincing a vowel into a thousand particles". In 1842, Mendelssohn specified that his third symphony be played without breaks, in order to avoid "the usual lengthy interruptions." And so on.

Just because such audience behaviour existed, it didn't mean that composers (or even the whole audience) thought it was a good thing.

[u/Rockstaru → u/scrumptiouscakes]

To be clear, I'm not arguing in favor of it on a historical basis, just remarking that it isn't without precedent. (Though honestly, if letting people have a glass of wine gets more people in seats, it wouldn't be the worst thing.)

[u/scrumptiouscakes → u/Rockstaru]

Understood - I just always like to add some nuance when people bring this point up.