A Night at the Opera

A few nights ago I went to "Turandot" at the Fort Worth Opera in Bass Hall. The performance was wonderful, the costumes were beautiful, and all around it was a great time, what did stun me a bit was how some people chose to dress for a night at the opera. Now, as a theatre person I have it in my head that when you are going to a full production of an opera (let alone something as important to opera as Turandot) you go wearing your best. I think if I had one I would have worn a tuxedo, but I don't have one so I put on the best suit I have, a black pinstripe three piece. On arrival I look around and am just a bit thrown to see folks there in jeans and cabana shirts. This wasn't a 'dress down' theme night or anything, but there were people there in clothes that they had obviously given no thought to match to the event. I was also a bit taken aback that this made me so upset, but it did. There was some guy sitting a few seats over who was dressed in khakis and some red polo shirt. It still gets me a bit riled to think about. Khakis! Seriously? Now on the jeans thing I can accept if it's a locally acceptable cultural norm to think jeans can be formal. I'm from Texas, I understand that. It's not something I buy into myself, but when I see somebody around here who's clearly very Texan walking around in his best jeans, boots, western shirt, bolo tie and hat, I can accept that he feels like he's as dressed up as he can get. It's when I see people who don't have the upbringing, courtesy, respect, thoughtfulness, concern or whatever it is to think about their attire for more than 30 seconds when they're going to something blatantly formal that I get a bit unhappy. I blame our movie oriented culture.

Think about it. How many movies have you gone to see this year? I'd wager that of the guys almost none of you thought about what you were going to wear unless you were going on a date or are gay. That's fine, I don't think about it either, not for movies. Now, how many live theatre events(ballet, opera, musicals, plays, etc.) have you gone to? Probably the number is less than 10 to 1 in favor of the movies.

My point is this, we go to movies so much and think in terms of personal, private entertainment, that we've forgotten how to show ourselves (and a modicum of respect for performers) in public high social settings. This is not a good thing people! We're going to forget how to dress ourselves at all before too long and even that'll get to be socially acceptable. Dressing formally isn't a chore guys, it's a great way to show off and even boost your self confidence. The girls know what I mean, they have their favorite dresses and shoes and whatnots, not just because they look good, but because it makes them feel good about themselves. Let's get in on the action. I love putting on a well fitted suit, I think it says good things about me. I think we are poisoning ourselves with our addiction to fast, cheap, anytime, anywhere entertainment and the lack of personal concern that has sprung up along side it. I could go into some other opinions I have about that, but for the time being I think I'll just leave it at that. Anyway, do yourself a favor, dress up nice for something, and I don't mean the aiming as casual as you can, go all out. People will notice, in a good way.