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A Message to Parents - Please Do Not Bring Your Little Children To The Opera

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#1

A Message to Parents - Please Do Not Bring Your Little Children To The Opera

Posted: 3/3/07 at 5:15pm

I know a lot of you just know in your hearts that your little darlings are special and mature enough at the tender age of 5 or 6 to enjoy sitting through 3 hours of Gilbert and Sullivan not only because it will be exposing them to culture but also because, Hey! It's got Pirates in it and Little Johnny and Little Mary just LOVE Johnny Depp. Well, if I may correct you Upper West Side Mommy who likes to narrate the show to said children and gets upset when they want to talk and kick seats and get up and run around - THEY DON'T GIVE A FLYING F**K ABOUT GILBERT AND SULLIVAN! KEEP THEM AT HOME!



Thank you and enjoy the rest of your day.
#2

re: A Message to Parents - Please Do Not Bring Your Little Children To The Opera

Posted: 3/3/07 at 5:20pm

HE, do NOT generalize. I used to LOVE G and S from the age of 3 or 4. In fact, by the Time I wass six, I had seen Porgy and Bess, Madame Butterfly, Carmen, and Hansel and Gretal. Loved every minute of each, and then recreated the sets, costumes and all in my living room
#4

re: A Message to Parents - Please Do Not Bring Your Little Children To The Opera

Posted: 3/3/07 at 5:26pm

Maybe you did like it, but I think the problem is less about liking it than it is about the ability to sit politely through a three-hour production, which a great many small children cannot do. I doubt there are many 3-4 year old children who do have any appreciation for G&S, and I think it would take quite the prodigious child to catch on to its humor. But if you must, get the film version and show your three-year-olds. Don't bring them to the opera.
A work of art is an invitation to love.
#8

re: A Message to Parents - Please Do Not Bring Your Little Children To The

Posted: 3/3/07 at 6:19pm

My dad took me to see Swan Lake when I was very young on the grounds that I really enjoyed this animated film version of it. Silly daddy should have realised that at the tender age of... good heavens, VERY young, I wasn't into Tchaikovsky quite as much as I liked the talking squirrels. XD

I'd really like to see it again now I'm older but I damn well missed it when it was at my lcoal theatre a few weeks ago. ;_;
Notes from the Earlham Street Gutter
#9

re: A Message to Parents - Please Do Not Bring Your Little Children To The

Posted: 3/3/07 at 6:24pm

I've been going to the opera since I was 7 years old, and I never once caused any kind of disturbance. I thank my parents for taking me at such a young age and fostering a love of the artform in me. I think this really varies from child to child, and a broad generalization is unnecessary.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe." -John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#10

re: A Message to Parents - Please Do Not Bring Your Little Children To The

Posted: 3/3/07 at 6:41pm

I TOTALLY agree with the others that you cant generalize. All children are totally different !!

As a parent, I can tell you that we try and expose our 11-month old to all different stimuli. Its good for her development, and we want her to get a taste of many different things at an early stage. Would we take her to an opera or a Broadway show right now? NO WAY !! But, when we feel that she can sit thru it (maybe when she is 4 or 5), we will.

I wouldnt tell EVERY parent to keep their child away from the opera.
#11

re: A Message to Parents - Please Do Not Bring Your Little Children To The

Posted: 3/3/07 at 6:46pm

If it wasn't obvious enough I was speaking of "certain" children.

Again, I know there are extremely "mature" 5 year olds (I've worked with kids since I was a teenager) but the majority of them, as I saw today, are not like that. Those are the chidren of which I was speaking about.
#12

re: A Message to Parents - Please Do Not Bring Your Little Children To The

Posted: 3/3/07 at 6:54pm

I have to agree with the original poster's sentiment. Yes, the above posters may have behaved perfectly in the theatre at a young age, but the posters on this board also continue to have better behavior than the vast majority of theatregoers even as adults. I'd hardly call us a diverse representative of the average audience member. The vast majority of young children cannot handle sitting through a 3-hour opera. The few that can are future BWWers.
Like a firework unexploded
Wanting life but never knowing how
#13

re: A Message to Parents - Please Do Not Bring Your Little Children To The

Posted: 3/3/07 at 6:58pm

It's generally a bad idea to take 5 or 6 year olds to a theatrical event not specifically designed for young children. If you risk it anyway, you need to be willing to swallow the expense and leave as soon as it becomes apparent that they're disturbing or disrupting other audience members.
#14

re: A Message to Parents - Please Do Not Bring Your Little Children To The

Posted: 3/3/07 at 7:06pm

<< A Message to Parents - Please Do Not Bring Your Little Children To The
Posted On: 3/3/07 at 06:46 PM


If it wasn't obvious enough I was speaking of "certain" children.

Again, I know there are extremely "mature" 5 year olds (I've worked with kids since I was a teenager) but the majority of them, as I saw today, are not like that. Those are the chidren of which I was speaking about.

>>

I dont know how this is supposed to be "obvious" given your Subject Title.... but anyway.... I understand what you are saying to an extent, but you did generalize in your subject line.
#15

re: A Message to Parents - Please Do Not Bring Your Little Children To The

Posted: 3/3/07 at 7:12pm

Well, you genearlized as well in your comment about the original poster obviously not having children. Just because someone hasn't spawned offspring doesn't mean they haven't come into enough contact with children to be able to form an opinion about their behavior.
Like a firework unexploded
Wanting life but never knowing how
#16

re: A Message to Parents - Please Do Not Bring Your Little Children To The

Posted: 3/3/07 at 7:20pm

<< Well, you genearlized as well in your comment about the original poster obviously not having children. Just because someone hasn't spawned offspring doesn't mean they haven't come into enough contact with children to be able to form an opinion about their behavior. >>

You might want to look up the word "generalization"-
You might also wanted to read my post again. I never used the word "obviously".

What I made was an "assumption"- totally different.
#17

re: A Message to Parents - Please Do Not Bring Your Little Children To The

Posted: 3/3/07 at 7:21pm

I think the key is for parents to know their children, and act responsibly. Which includes removing children from the theater if they are behaving disrespectfully. I think the biggest problem is irresponisble parents, not nessairily the children. I do think that most children, if they are prepaired properly can certainly sit through and enjoy an opera. But parents - take your child to childrens theater, etc. first - get them started on theater, and then explain exactly what they're going to see, what's expected of them, and that there will be a punnishment - going home- if they do not behave themselves.
Madame Morrible: "So you take the chicken, now it must be a white chicken. The corpse can be any color. And that is the spell for lost luggage!" - The Yellow Brick Road Not Taken
#18

re: A Message to Parents - Please Do Not Bring Your Little Children To The

Posted: 3/3/07 at 7:23pm

<< I think the key is for parents to know their children, and act responsibly. Which includes removing children from the theater if they are behaving disrespectfully. I think the biggest problem is irresponisble parents, not nessairily the children. I do think that most children, if they are prepaired properly can certainly sit through and enjoy an opera. But parents - take your child to childrens theater, etc. first - get them started on theater, and then explain exactly what they're going to see, what's expected of them, and that there will be a punnishment - going home- if they do not behave themselves.
>>

$$$$$$$ - Bingo !
#20

re: A Message to Parents - Please Do Not Bring Your Little Children To The

Posted: 3/3/07 at 7:35pm

You might want to look up the word "generalization"-
You might also wanted to read my post again. I never used the word "obviously".

You commented that he sounded "like someone that does not have any children." That is a generalization. And you might want to look up the word "paraphrasing."
Like a firework unexploded
Wanting life but never knowing how
#22

re: A Message to Parents - Please Do Not Bring Your Little Children To The

Posted: 3/3/07 at 8:22pm

<< You commented that he sounded "like someone that does not have any children." That is a generalization. And you might want to look up the word "paraphrasing." >>

Generalization: --- the process of formulating general concepts by abstracting common properties of instances

a proposition asserting something to be true either of all members of a certain class or of an indefinite part of that class.

Once again... I made an ASSUMPTION, which was based on the original post, and the way it came across.

Listen, I think the OP can defend him/her self-



#23

re: A Message to Parents - Please Do Not Bring Your Little Children To The

Posted: 3/3/07 at 11:19pm

I just got back from this evening's performance of PIRATES and there were MANY young children there, some so young that they were still in diapers. All were beautifully behaved. Just thought I'd put that out there.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe." -John Guare, Landscape of the Body

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