I was at our fishmonger yesterday morning in Campo S. Margherita. While waiting for my salmon to be cut and wrapped, I watched a stream of university students, mostly women, hurriedly walking to classes (I presume). About 40 passed me by in the 7 minutes I waited for the fish. Every one of them, I mean every one, wore jeans. Every one (with one exception) wore a black coat or jacket. No differentiation. No personality, no individuality. No style. No nuttin'. Lemmings to the sea. Italian fashion, indeed. The fish lying in repose on ice at the fishmonger had loads more style. Sheeesh!
It made me begin to think about dress standards in general and in particular to the headfirst free-fall thereof. But surely there is a safe haven for those who wish to appear elegant and to associate with those similarly like-minded...of course there is, the opera!
The above was by way of introduction to my rating of opera venues and the quality of dress of those who attend.
Let's start with the Fenice in Venice where we live. Surely going to the opera is a must for dressing up, no? Not any more. In Venice the majority do wear suits and dresses but there is always a minority of casualties, people who treat the opera as they do going to the cinema or into the kitchen. Give Venice an B.
At the Met in New York... well, you have to realise that 50% of the attendees are business people visiting New York who get the tickets from their law firm or investment bankers. So business attire predominates. But nothing is uniform, so to speak. A few years back we saw a great Traviata with Renee Fleming. We were twenty-five rows back in the orchestra section and the 60ish man next to me wore a tee shirt and jeans. New York gets a B-.
The best dressed audience we have seen was undoubtedly in Munich. Very elegant. The only people who made no effort (a small minority) were American groupies of countertenor David Daniels (who was the reason we went). It was a Handel opera set in a US Army quonsat hut and Daniels wore army fatigues, clearly he was his fans' role model. Give Munich an A+, nevertheless. Give the set designer a F.
Covent Garden rates a C-. Young people at the opera in London are one level above slobs. No sense of occasion. And of course it is the sense of occasion which heightens the pleasure of an event, whether an opera, a dinner party, a cocktail party. Or maybe it's the £200 tickets? These events are different from a dreary dinner at home, or a pizza at the local restaurant, or a football match. Dressing properly pays due respect to the hosts, to the fellow attendees and to the event. Surely the joy of life is differentiation: things vary, "a time to weep and a time to laugh" as Ecclesiastes reminds us. Or listen to this from the Irish poet Louis MacNeice who rejoices in..."the drunkenness of things being various."
Statsopera in Vienna gets an A. Even some formal wear. Also, while we are at it, give Vienna another A for production values. (Fenice take note.)
Paris. The Parisians are known for their elegance and style and rightly so. Tourists to Paris are not unlike tourists everywhere and therefore are not known for their elegance and style. But I would say the average was raised by the locals so let's give Paris a B.
Salzburg. Conservative, organised, well dressed. A
I'll leave the music criticism to those better informed. Ciao.
