James Tobin <[log in to unmask]>writes:

>Years ago, I was astounded how formally he audience dressed in Munich for
>an opera festival in the middle of the summer--even in a top-tier Stehplatz
>(sp? assigned standing room position)*--and, the same year, in Salzburg...

It's not seldom that I buy a Stehplatz at the Munich opera (National
Theater).  The tickets are cheap--six bucks for the cheapest-- and
there are sofas in the foyers where you can practice sitting during
intermissions.  Moreover, if you feel like cutting the evening short
you can do so without throwing away part of a majaor investment.

Up in the peanut galleries I'd say a thin majority of males wear ties but
the younger ones often don't.  The females dress a little more formally
than they would going out to anything else but a wake.  During the opera
festivals, even the Stehplaetze frump up--maybe because those incredibly
expensive seats in the Parkett, or the loges, persuade customers, at least
a good many of them, that this sort of outlay rates a tux-- for madame that
floor-length number with the slit up to the navel.

In Salzburg, ta similar price/dress proportionality applies.  Lotta tuxes,
lotta ties, but also a lotta Armani leather jackets and in-your-face open
collars.  Fancy evening wear for the ladies, but a good deal of it with
trousers.  (Mind you, I haven't attended the Salzburg festival for a couple
of years now.)

Denis Fodor