Quote:
Originally Posted by Burninator
I'm sure they haven't. No offence to the American Idol/British Idol fans, but they don't seem like a group of people that would listen to opera unless it was remixed by 50 cent. So my guess is that for the majority of the fans (which I am sure are 14 year old girls) have been exposed to very little opera. It isn't exactly mainstream. Heck, I can't even think of the last time I heard it outside of this thread.
I got a question for you though. Since I am a total opera noob, was all that cheering and clapping during the singing an opera faux paux? I always that applause and cheering was only to be done during certain parts of the song (like a long breaks in the song) or at the end. Or I could be thinking of the symphony. I ask because they cheered a lot during parts of the song, especially during the peak parts (for lack of a better term). And it overlapped the singing. So am I seeing nothing or is the crowd acting bush league?
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The applause is usually at the end, for a couple of reasons. The orchestra has a tempo that they will have established with the conductor and with the soloist. That tempo will then be broken, it might not seem like so much of a faux pas, but you are interrupting the words and story line then too. And if the soloist is in the middle of say, the big ending such as in Nessun Dorma, then the soloist has to compete with the noise from the crowd. Usually they dont, but if they do, they risk the chance of straining their vocal chords. It is also rude to other members of the audience who have paid to come and hear the orchestra and soloist, not the crowd clap in the middle of the production.
Now sometimes if just the orchestra is playing, and there is say, a solo by maybe the trumpet player, and the conductor points towards him when he is done, then it is appropriate to clap at that point in time, even if the piece has not been finished.