Maybe this should go in AIBU, but here goes:
I was at Gotterdammerung last night at the ROH, and my eye was caught by the really large number of people leaving the auditorium before the curtain calls. Maybe some hated it - though it was sizzling! - and maybe some had trains to catch, but it seems hard to credit that after 4.5 hours of music they apparently couldn't be arsed to stay for even one round of applause. It just seems rude.
Same event - my family and I stood up to give John Tomlinson a standing ovation. The man behind me poked me in the back and insisted I sat down, and threw a huge hissy fit when i said wait a minute. Moaned that he couldn't see.. I told him why I was standing and he got even hissier and said I was being patronising, but I honestly thought he might not know.,.. Interestingly, the same thing happened to my son at the Bayerischer Staatsoper. Are standing ovations going out in the face of people's demand that they see the cast? People were actually standing up everywhere in small groups. Of course I get that it temporarily impedes people's view, but I myself wouldn't mind if people in front of me felt moved to rise, even if I didn't. He was btw young and in no way disabled.
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Standing ovations and people leaving before applause
sieglinde · 25/10/2012 12:25
Firstly, I have always wondered whether you were a Wagnerian and this post has confirmed it, so thank you! 
I am also very jealous - I am only managing to listen to this Ring Cycle on IPlayer as a 2yo and another on the way is not conducive to an entire Ring Cycle in a city 200 miles from home.
I have been to lots of Wagner (and other opera) up here in the NW and also at Glyndebourne and it has only been in the NW where people have left before the curtain calls. I assume it is to catch public transport - people often come a long way for Wagner and given its length it is often tight to the last train home.
This didn't happen at Glyndebourne as the coaches back to London are arranged as are the timings of the last train from Glynde; otherwise most people are driving.
With regard to standing ovations, I think you were just unlucky. I was at the RoH for the cycle in 2007/8 (??) and stood to applaud. No problem. I have also never had a problem at the RAH, Bridgewater Hall, Lowry or even Glyndebourne. In fact when the Halle did Gotterdammerung in concert at the Bridgewater Hall there wasn't a person left in their seat.
Oh, Katisha. How did you know how many Wagner DVDs I own?? 
Katisha, I'd go for the Barenboim/Kupfer one from Bayreuth with John Tomlinson as Wotan ahead of the new Met one. The sets are a bit 
, especially since Siegfried lives in a yellow and green nuclear submarine, but if you can withstand the post-nuclear stuff the singing, orchestra and acting are divine.
My other pick is a sentimental favourite - I love the old Chereau Centenary Ring, with Boulez. It was the first Ring I ever heard or saw, on battered old pirate VCR tapes. I went out the next day and sgned up for extra shifts at work so I could buy the Solti LPs.
Bryn is of course wonderful for the Met, and I ADORE Kaufmann and very much like Westbroek, but I can't bear Deborah Voigt as Brunnhilde, and think Levine very so-so with the orchestra. (He's speeded up a bit, but not enough.)
You COULD also consider the Copenhagen Ring, though it wouldn't make for a very sane first choice. A slasher, dirt-horror Rheingold, telling and exceedingly grim. I also have a fondness for the Aix Walkure as a standalone, Rattle conducting and Willard White as Wotan...
And if you are in the mood for laughs, the OLD Met ring looks like a table gamer's wet-dream, as DS recently said. Styrofoam rocks and everyone costumed in Warhammer kit. Plenty of it can be found on YouTube, with the likes of poor Siegfried Jerusalem looking as if they have no idea why they are involved.
Now let's talk about recorded versions... Testament, or Decca?
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