I went to see "Faust" at the NY Met tonight. After the first interval moments before the third act was supposed to begin, a protester started shouting "Occupy Wall Street" at the top of his voice. Thats not really the done thing at the Met. But to my surprise, people started to applaud. Not one or two people but at least 50% of the audience. The applause continued until he was presumably dragged out. I only wish I'd had the presence of mind to shout "Bravo!" during his protest. This really is a diary as its an account of my evening at the Met. There's really not much to add than that. I think its an interesting datapoint that a protest during a performance at the Met Opera would get a relatively warm and enthusisatic reception. If you'd ever heard what happens when someone's cellphone goes off mid-aria you'd know that can be a mean crowd. In any event, I was even more convinced of the breadth and depth of support for the Occupy movement by this incident so I thought I'd share it. The opera was sublime and wonderful too.
↧