Rich-Ass Opera Fans Boo Opera
September 27, 2009
Am I really supposed to give a flying fuck about this shit?
THE fracas during curtain calls for the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Puccini’s “Tosca” last Monday is just the latest episode in a grand history of operatic booing. Frank expressions of displeasure pierced the applause at the conclusion of Act II and exploded when the production team took its bows at the end of the opera. Many in the audience took umbrage at the villain’s lewd advances toward a statue of the Madonna; at the failure by Tosca to make her customary sweeping exit after stabbing the villain to death; and at the substitution, after an awkward pause, of a stunt double for her suicidal leap.
So, some rich-ass motherfuckers are booing at the motherfucking opera? And this is a “fracas”? Fuck me.
September 27, 2009 at 8:38 pm
Going to the opera is not a substantially more expensive pastime than going to a pro football game, PP. Depending on the seats, it can be a lot cheaper. Don’t be a fucking rube.
September 27, 2009 at 8:55 pm
So, some rich-ass motherfuckers are booing at the motherfucking opera?
Okay, so maybe the price of an opera ticket and a football ticket are about the same. However, “normal” people are eager to buy football tickets, whereas I’d bet the majority of opera-goers *are* “rich-ass motherfuckers”. And did you
I recently went to the symphony in my home town, which is a big-deal thing, and the behavior of the older, well-off patrons was completely comical. They, in fact, were more entertaining than the performance.
September 27, 2009 at 9:53 pm
I recently went to the symphony in my home town, which is a big-deal thing, and the behavior of the older, well-off patrons was completely comical. They, in fact, were more entertaining than the performance.
And this isn’t true for football games?
September 27, 2009 at 10:46 pm
Although I’d say drunk dudes in full-body paint are a less common sight at the opera.
September 27, 2009 at 11:39 pm
O.k., Candind Engineer. we get it. You hate the humanities and love football. ‘Cause, you know, the opera has a bunch of rich GOP motherfuckers up in the boxes, and football doesn’t.
This is not the place I usually expect to find Hannity/Beck-level antiintellecutalism — but there it is.
September 28, 2009 at 5:49 am
Spiny win. I believe the appropriate response to this post is Get Your Own Motherfucking Newspaper.
September 28, 2009 at 10:51 am
I guess I’m not “normal”. I get tickets (and sometimes really good ones) for “student” prices to our city’s top-notch opera a couple times a year. I also enjoy a football game (with the same sort of frequency). I agree that the diehard fans of both forms of entertainment are often amusing.
September 28, 2009 at 5:18 pm
AA, thanks for triggering happy memories of getting last-minute opera tickets for the student rate of six pounds, realising our seats were in a very fancy box, and looking down on the heads of several profs from my department, who had paid considerably more for their seats in the stalls and were not happy to see us… hee hee! Payback for all the times our cheap tickets got us into the very back of the highest levels, from where we couldn’t read the translation screen and had no idea what was going on.
I don’t like (American) football, but I pay substantially more than six quid for hockey tickets, once or twice a year, and even more for (proper) football tickets whenever I’m in England at the right time of year.
September 28, 2009 at 6:45 pm
Cath – I must admit that I’ve never actually paid for the NFL tickets myself, but if a friend wants to invite me along I don’t turn them down. I’ll be honest, I go to football games more for the entertainment provided by the fans than the actual game itself. I’m not anti-sports, but NFL doesn’t match my attention span. I suppose that if I were more interested in the game I would probably buy the seats myself and more frequently. Now, if there were a professional rugby league anywhere nearby that might be a different matter. I’d probably be shelling out a lot more for the sports tickets in that case. Now watch me get flamed for posing as a “normal” person who also likes opera, when it is clear that I am in fact an Anglophilic snob of the highest degree. Rugby over NFL??? Elitist bastard!!!
September 29, 2009 at 8:56 am
Going to the opera is one of my favorite things to do on Tosca is beautiful. I think it’s one of those things that you either get or you don’t.
September 30, 2009 at 2:32 pm
all kinds of people go to the opera— and one can like both major league sports and the opera. Indeed, baseball and operatic singing both feature athletic feats and the collecting of stats by enthusiasts. But as Isis says, you either get opera or you don’t.
October 2, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Get your own motherfucking newspaper, indeed!