BACK
The audience at the Teatro Real: From top hats to mobile phones in flight mode
If the building of the Theatre has changed shape three times throughout its life, the audience has done so with each generation.
FROM 'BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE' TO OPERA LOVERS
"MADRID AUDIENCE THINK A LOT ABOUT THE BEAUTY OF SOUND"
WHAT THE AUDIENCE IS LIKE AT THE REAL
The stage manager Guillermo Carbonell explains that in the Teatro Real one does not applaud after the arias, whereas in other theatres they do.
Download Transcript
The spanish tenor Jose Manuel Zapata explains the value of applause for the artists.
Download Transcript
For the audience of the Teatro Real to ask for an encore, something spectacular and perfect must happen. It has only happened twice (in the Metropolitan of New York there have been 6 in the last 20 years).
FUNNY STORIES AT THE REAL
Mobile phones take first place, but you cannot imagine what the ushers find after some performances.
Download Transcript
There are people who are scandalised by some performances, but then return to the next performance, and in better seats!
Download Transcript
The second encore in the history of the Teatro Real arrived in 2014 motivated by the enthusiasm of a student who, before the show, handed out leaflets asking for the applause at the end of the aria 'A mes amis', from the opera 'The Daughter of the Regiment' (Donizetti). The Mexican tenor Javier Camarena thanked the recognition by repeating the nine high notes of the applauded fragment.
FROM A RAGING PUBLIC IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, TO THE PASSIONATE ONE OF THE TWENTIETH
"The public of the 19th century came to the Teatro Real to the greatest show of the time. They had their favourites and their least favourites, there were even those who insulted each other and came to fight in defence of their artists. For example, the singer Angelo Masini had to suspend a performance of 'The Huguenots' because of the whistling by the supporters of the theatre's favourite, the spanish tenor Julián Gayarre. Today the public can be divided in two; those who went to see zarzuela when the Teatro Real was not there; and the novices, a new audience who came out of curiosity, to appear. In these 20 years it has improved a little, they are more attentive, but at first nobody applauded. Now they participate more."
Fernando Fraga, opera critic.