The matter of 'incorrect' clapping has been raised. Perhaps I may be allowed to enlarge on this. As a child in the late 40s and 50s, making my first visits to opera and listening with parents to the BBC Third Programme, I was aware that audiences never clapped the overture at an opera performance. As this code of behaviour began to fade away quite a number of conductors clearly wished to stifle the increasingly frequent applause by having the curtain moving upwards before they had finished; sometimes singers were already moving on the stage. Performing the overture to an open curtain caused enough unease that applause was sometimes prevented. These actions always had my approval - I think applauding the overture at an opera is unnecessary, boorish and completely ruins the atmosphere that is being created. Then there were the "smart-arsed" know-alls who would, nevertheless, try to get some applause in quick to let everyone else know that they knew how and when the overture ended! But, today, there is much worse than that! In opera we now have "audience participation" as a visit to the NY Met will prove (the worst example I know) in all opera. Opera at the Met consists frequently of "we'll sing a little, you clap a lot and that way we'll have a great evening." Even if the conductor decides to ride straight into the opera from the overture this audience will start clapping the scenery right across the music! If you don't believe me then take, as an example, the closing of La Boheme Act 1 where "Che gelida manina", "Si, mi chiamano Mimi", and "O soave fanciulla" are all crazily applauded, thus totally ruining the wonderful action on stage. Then trip off to La Boheme at La Scala and there you'll find you could almost hear a feather drop! I've even heard verses of an aria applauded (where the audience didn't know the aria well enough). One good night I did enjoy at the Met was "I Lombardi" - a Pavarotti evening although I was there for the work (never seen it before); the audience didn't think it knew the work well enough and so, thank goodness, remained fairly quiet. I once asked Peter Gelb why he couldn't at least attempt to silence the Met audience when they are filming and he replied that it would be impossible which makes watching Met videos really very tiresome indeed. And today, at Bayreuth, after over 100 years of performances they have even started to applaud the first act of Parsifal! Shameful! There's no way back. It can only get worse. John G. Deacon Home page: http://www.ctv.es/USERS/j.deacon PIPEDOWN - Campaign Against Piped Music http://www.btinternet.com/~pipedown