Klarinet Archive - Posting 000082.txt from 2005/08
From: Adam Michlin <amichlin@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] applauding before the end
Date: Sat, 06 Aug 2005 13:41:08 -0400
Margaret,
I suspect only instrumentalists in the audience would consider your example
as disrespectful of the artists in the pit. One of the first rules of pit
playing (whatever the form of on stage entertainment) is THE AUDIENCE ISN'T
PAYING TO HEAR YOU. You are an accompanist, your job is to make the people
on stage sound better and quite often that is by playing under the people
on the stage. Very few people leave a performance by Pavarotti or Fleming
and say "wow, that was a really beautiful solo clarinet obbligato, I really
must buy more tickets to the Met". Certainly such people exist, but it is
likely they are in no position to make or break the Met. Opera lovers
attend, first and foremost, to hear the singers, not the solo clarinetist.
This is a very hard lesson the first time you step into a pit situation.
Most players gain their initial orchestral experience in a symphony
orchestra, used to being the center of attention. Many don't last long as
accompanists (whether for singers on stage or functioning as really good
second clarinet players) either because they cannot or choose not to
suppress their own ego. The people in the pit at the Met are
extraordinarily good at their job and know quite well where they fit in the
scheme of greater things.
You are not wrong to wish you could have heard the clarinet solo, but you
are wrong to suggest the audience was being disrespectful to anyone in the
theater. You merely came to the performance with different priorities
(priorities, I might add, which I share, much to the perplexment of my own
opera going non-musician friends).
And a general thought about applause in "inappropriate times". I think we
must differentiate between two categories:
1. People who really just don't know the 2005 Convention of When Thou Shall
and Shall Not Clap.
2. People who do know and just like to be a pain in the.. ahem.
I cannot criticize the first set of people, they don't know any better. I
can suggest they be better educated and Robert Schoen's piece is, in my
experience, a wonderfully comic and respectful way to educate the audience.
This is such a fine line, to educate the audience without appearing to be
condescending. It can be done, though, Leonard Bernstein was a particular
master at it.
A counter argument is that such people should take responsibility for their
own education. Certainly a reasonable argument, but we must then accept
that some set of people will opt not to do so and therefore choose other
forms of entertainment. Some critics would further argue: so be it, but I
truly believe the symphony orchestra as an organization should make efforts
to be more inclusive rather then more exclusive. I am not suggesting they
start to sell to beer and popcorn at concerts (though I must admit the
thought amuses me to no end), just that berating people for inappropriate
applause is an exclusive practice.
I can and will criticize the second group, but am rather skeptical as to
how many people fit into this category
-Adam
PS: For those who would point out the third category, those who know about
the Convention and disagree with it, like it or not such is the current
Convention. I'll be sure to invite them to the annual Meeting of Those Who
Dictate Concert Performing Practices in December 2005 and perhaps we can
hash out a new Convention for 2006. Honest.
At 11:46 AM 8/6/2005, Margaret Thornhill wrote:
>Wayne wrtoe:
>
>>" I like opera. The culture is
>>somehow different, isn't it? There, the excited
>>applause as an aria is ending, is, for me, perfect. I
>>want to join in with the emotion of the singer."
>
>Wayne, though I agree with most of your post, I have no tolerance for this
>practice.
>
>Not only does it subvert the composer's attempt to complete his musical
>throught, but it's completely disrepectful of the artists in the pit who
>have more playing to do, as in a performance I heard of The Italian Girl
>in Algiers at the Met in 2004, where one of the Met orchestra clarinetists
>was compltely drowned out by applause for the tenor (Juan Diego Florez)
>while playing his beautiful solo clarinet obbligato that ends a tenor aria.
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