Rehearsal Manners – Boston Audience Needs Practice

James Levine has been using Boston Symphony dress rehearsals to actually rehearse. It will take some re-education though, for the auidences that ettend the rehearsals. “After the grand climax at the very end of the work, the audience burst into applause, which Levine acknowledged, asking the orchestra to rise. But then most in the audience began to leave, quite noisily and rudely, although the music director and orchestra were still onstage with work to do. Ultimately Levine had to whistle for silence, and cried out in mock-agony the dying words of the villainous police chief Scarpia in Puccini’s “Tosca” after he has been stabbed. “Aiuto, soccorso!” (“Help me! Come to my aid.”) More freely translated: “Give me a break.”