Dukey1

I managed to get two tickets to what I think is the last La Traviata performance in July. I had given up even looking for anything since I mistakenly thought nothing of interest would be on stage so this is a nice surprise.

The house website has the usual "boilerplate" language about men wearing coats and ties and people "dressing appropriately." I've read the same stuff for Verona (it applies to the so-called "gold" seats particularly) as well as for Munich, La Scala, etc., etc.

I am wondering if anyone here has attended a performance within the past year or two. The coat and tie thing is easy enough to do but am curious as to what <B>actually occurred</B>.

I've noticed the dress mode has evolved in many places (much to the horror and understandable disappointment to those who dress up) and I fully expect the same at the Met next week.

Thanks for any input.

sandralist

I can only go by eyewitness reports from Italians who have been to La Fenice, not first hand experience, but the report is that if you have tickets to seats where you might be seen on promotional videos, then formality in dress will be enforced, but that others occupying other seats turn up in jeans and jacket without a tie and nothing is done about it. July strikes me as a unlikey time to enforce a jacket/tie rule, but probably flip-flops, shorts and undershirts would be a reason to be refused entry.

flanneruk

I don't see any boilerplate about coats and ties.

I see (in the English version) that you "are in any case always advised to wear a jacket and tie. In general, we ask that you wear clothing that is in keeping with the decorum"

In Italian, it's different: "Il pubblico è tenuto a presentarsi a Teatro con un abbigliamento adeguato al rispetto e al decoro della sede e degli altri spettatori." No specifics.

There is a Trip Advisor thread about this (https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTo...ce_Veneto.html)
This seems a typical European dress code thread: those who've been say there isn't one: those who haven't say there is - or ought to be.

That sounds to me like the standard (but not universal) unwritten English summer opera code: don't dress sloppy, but don't worry about looking overdressed if you want to wear a dinner jacket. That's always interpreted as "For indoor opera, please wear a jacket and try to look a bit stylish; For outdoor, please wear clothes. For either, don't point at people in evening dress"

Incidentally, my Verona poltrone tickets do say there's a "formal" code for all the poltrone variants, and the Trip Advisor thread says some follow it and some don't.

I'm wearing what I'd wear for any £100 a seat summer opera: tailored linen jacket, smart shirt and reasonably stylish everything else. I strongly suspect the audience norm in the €40 and under seats is a lot less stylish.

Dukey1

Flanner, thank you. Maybe I'll see you in the gold section in Verona this year.

Unfortunately, you did NOT answer the question but that's OK

Gwendolynn

Dukey… you'll enjoy my Met story. My husband and I had a subscription in the
GT. One nite we had "make-up" tickets for a cancelled performance, but the tickets were not for our regular seats. It was cold and rainy.. so I said… I'm wearing my sneakers. I never see anyone I know at the opera.
As we entered the row for our seats I saw a woman entering from the opposite end. One of my neighbors! Sat right next to us. We had a good laugh… she was wearing sneakers, too. (Black, of course.) Other than that, I've only noticed people when they were overdressed at the opera. Rule seems to be…. tie at the Met, very few ties at the ballet.

First time at Fenice we had great seats. Everyone around was well dressed.
Second time we were lucky to get the last seats in the house. We were practically hanging from the ceiling. Doubt anyone around would have noticed what we were wearing. -

annhig

congrats on getting the tickets, Dukey - it sounds great. [or should do!]

We have been to La Fenice, to a concert at Easter some years ago, and were in the front row [the only seats we could get] which not only gave us the chance to observe the members of the orchestra at close quarters but also to see them greeting their friends and family in the audience who were also very close to them.

What I cannot for the life of me remember is what people were wearing. DH and I would have been reasonably smart, our teenage/young adult kids slightly less so. My lurking impression is of lounge suits and smart dresses, nothing more.

My strongest memory [apart from the heavily pregnant cellist] is of the firemen who were all lined up on the stairs as we came out. Whether this is a regular occurrence [following the fire at La Fenice a few years earlier] or a one off, I have no idea.

bvlenci

The sentence before the one Flanner quotes for La Fenice is, "Per le prime rappresentazioni è gradito l’abito scuro e comunque, per tutte le rappresentazioni, la giacca e la cravatta per i Signori."
[For the season opening, dark suits are appreciated, and for all the performances, jacket and tie for men.] It doesn't say they're mandatory, but the sense is almost the same as the English version, albeit slightly less prescriptive.

The little illustration is pretty clear:

http://www.teatrolafenice.it/site/index.php?pag=22114

[The fairy godmother says, "For the evening at the theatre, I grant you elegance and fascination." The response is, "Can we subscribe to them?"]

So, from the illustration, it appears they won't let you in wearing bikini tops, t-shirts, shorts, or flip-flops. I don't know what that other patched garment is, but don't try to wear it.

I haven't been to the Fenice, but I've recently been to La Scala, to the Arena in Verona (in the gold poltrone) and to the Met in New York. At La Scala and the Met, we were rather higher up, but not in need of oxygen. I did notice that there was a wide range of dress in the orchestra at the Met, but I don't remember what was worn at La Scala.

My husband would refuse to go to the opera if he had to wear a jacket and tie, and I suspect that the Fenice "boilerplate" is somewhat more generic in the Italian version because they know that if they prescribed jacket and tie to Italians, they'd all turn up in jeans just to demonstrate their disdain for bourgeois conventions.

Many of the Italian elite now have totally forsworn jackets and ties, and I'd like to think my husband was a harbinger of the trend.

At the Arena, the people who don't have poltrone are sitting on stone steps, and even if they have cushions, I don't think it's a jacket-and-tie ambiance. It was obvious that many of them didn't care about the opera, as they chatted and snapped flash photos throughout.