I too see this fairly regularly both at New York City Opera and New York City Ballet. So far as I can remember, I haven't seen it elsewhere. While I can understand the musicians' wanting to relieve the boredom that comes with playing the same piece night after night, it really does look very bad to the audience. For that reason alone I am surprised that conductors (and the directors of these companies) countenance it. Why don't the players at least put the reading material on their stands so it looks like they're following the music? On a couple of occasions at NYC Ballet (where the orchestra has undergone a rapid decline since the days when Robert Irving led them), I have even heard the brass players (of course) hold conversations audible to those sitting upstairs! Which reminds me of a concert I once attended featuring a new work by Edwin London. In the middle of it, I noticed with alarm that one of the violists was talking at conversational level to her stand partner, as if she'd forgotten that this was a performance, not a rehearsal. Then I noticed someone else in the orchestra doing the same. Shocking! What was going on? More and more people began putting down their instruments and talking, and it finally became clear that this was part of the composition, ending with a general hubbub. Written by somebody who has rehearsed a few too many student groups, I would say. Pete Caleb ([log in to unmask])