185
* 125
again attention was drawn to the presence of the "beau monde”, the “beau sexe”, “all the beauty and fashion” and “our fair friends whose elegant evening costumes gave quite a brilliant aspect to the scene”. Seeing these representatives of the opposite sex on the front bench could not fail to inspire the performers with the desire to excel**. And who would disagree with that?
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It is well known that in Britain theatre audiences had for decades been heavily lacking in decorum; talking, eating, shouting, abusing the players. Things had turned to the better around the middle of the century and it seems that the Shanghai public was good mannered in so far as that can be said of any audience at all, for regular theatregoers will sadly have to admit that instances still abound today in which potentially glorious moments have been spoilt by some uneducated patrons. It may be assumed that the distraction caused by the public's behaviour in the mid 19th century was still worse than it is today. Then e.g. it was quite in order to talk during a concert or recital, albeit with a lower voice than during the interval. Real music lovers must have been driven mad by such chatter and it can hardly be imagined that it was appreciated by the performer. But, after all, such evenings were social occasions as much as artistic ones and the latest gossip had in some way to be exchanged. To be sure, such behaviour is not mentioned in the local paper, but there is little reason to believe that things were much better in Shanghai than in, say, London.
T
>
Only a couple of times is indecorous conduct reported in the columns of the Herald. Thus, on February 10 1864 "the audience was riotous in the extreme and displayed the worst possible taste in exciting themselves to increase the confusion on the stage" 127. The result was that at a subsequent performance the ladies shone by their absence** (see also: Calendar, 10.2.1864, 13.2.1864, 4.3.1864). Possibly this rowdyism was caused by the bad acting, but more likely a section of the large vagrant population which created some headaches for the ordinary residents during those years had a hand in it. Earlier the Herald had thought it wise to invoke the Earl of Chesterfield whose letters to his rascal son attempted to teach him the elements of good taste. And though the book had been published as long ago as 1774, the lessons contained in it were obviously considered still to be valid in 1858 when on February 10 the critic “noticed that several ladies on entering were kept some time in doubt as to where to find accommodation and were at length consigned to the back seats, while a lot of the 'lords of creation'
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185
* 125
again attention was drawn to the presence of the "beau monde”, the “beau sexe”, “all the beauty and fashion” and “our fair friends whose elegant evening costumes gave quite a brilliant aspect to the scene Seeing these representatives of the opposite sex on the front bench could not fail to inspire the performers with the desire to excel*.** And who would disagree with that?
-
It is well known that in Britain theatre audiences had for decades been heavily lacking in decorum; talking, eating, shouting, abusing the players. Things had turned to the better around the middle of the century and it seems that the Shanghai public was good mannered in so far as that can be said of any audience at all, for regular theatregoers will sadly have to admit that instances still abound today in which potentially glorious moments have been spoilt by some uneducated patrons. It may be assumed that the distraction caused by the public's behaviour in the mid 19th century was still worse than it is today. Then c.g. it was quite in order to talk during a concert or recital, albeit with a lower voice than during the interval. Real music lovers must have been driven mad by such chatter and it can hardly be imagined that it was appreciated by the performer. But, after all, such evenings were social occasions as much as artistic ones and the latest gossip had in some way to be exchanged. To be sure, such behaviour is not mentioned in the local paper, but there is little reason to believe that things were much better in Shanghai than in, say, London.
T
>
Only a couple of times is indecorous conduct reported in the columns of the Herald. Thus, on February 10 1864 "the audience was riotous in the extreme and displayed the worst possible taste in exciting themselves to increase the confusion on the stage 127 The result was that at a subsequent performance the ladies shone by their absence1** (see also: Calendar, 10.2.1864, 13.2.1864, 4.3.1864). Possibly this rowdyism was caused by the bad acting, but more likely a section of the large vagrant population which created some headaches for the ordinary residents during those years had a hand in it. Earlier the Herald had thought it wise to invoke the Earl of Chesterfield whose letters to his rascal son attempted to teach him the elements of good taste. And though the book had been published as long ago as 1774, the lessons contained in it were obviously considered still to be valid in 1858 when on February 10 the critic “noticed that several ladies on entering were kept some time in doubt as to where to find accommodation and were at length consigned to the back seats, while a lot of the 'lords of creation*
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