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October 6, 2008
Dressy but not classy
Thanks to the generosity of a visiting friend from Philadelphia, I attended the new season’s first performance of “Lucia di Lammermoor” at the Metropolitan Opera Friday night, and was knocked out by the production and, especially, German soprano Diana Damrau’s performance in the title role.
The crowd greeted each of Damrau’s arias with the cheers the actress-singer deserved — the ovation following Lucia’s death scene stopped the show — but at the end of Act 3 it was appalling to see so many beautifully dressed first nighters rushing up the aisles before the curtain call.
I’ve been noticing this rushing-out trend at too many performances in recent years.
It seems to me that part of the pact an audience makes with the artists at a live event is to stay and applaud the curtain call at the end.
To exit just as the show is ending is rude to the performers and to those audience members who want to acknowledge the cast’s work.
The weirdest aspect of this phenomenom is that it seems to occur more frequently at non-profit, subscription-driven venues. It’s as if frequent attendance in the choicest seats grants these frantic patrons the right to hustle out of the theater as quickly as possible.
Are people so used to watching canned media at home that they forget there are live people up on that stage who would like to take a bow at the end of a show?
Fortunately, for Damrau and her fellow “Lammermoor” cast members, the cheers of the audience members who stayed for the curtain calls were loud and sustained. It also was charming to see the great soprano get to break character and show her delight in the fantastic night she had up on that vast stage. As New York Times critic Anthony Tommasini put it in his rave review on Sunday, "During the rousing final ovation (Damrau) took to the stage like a rock star, looking exultant."
Posted by Joe on October 6, 2008 5:19 PM
