Sydney has an Opera House?
Yup, they were unbelievably rude.
That’s what they call it but it looks like a stack of white labia to me.
Hey Gangster, if we keep it up will we get a free trip there for a booting?
I think the *way * they left is incredibly rude, but the fact that they left at all; not so much. I’m not sure why someone would purchase tickets for a lovely performance knowing they weren’t going to stay for the whole thing, but it is their right. They were audience members, not indentured servants. I don’t see how the act of leaving in and of itself is disruptful, but if they were making noise and stepping on people on the way out then yeah, they’re a bunch of wolverines.
A few years back, I had the opportunity to attend the local philharmonic orchestra the same night as the local NCAA college basketball powerhouse team played their first game in the conference tournament. For the benefit of those fans who would go home and watch the game on tape delay, we were promised that they would not announce the score during the performance. Nevertheless, one could tell who was winning at intermission, by the happiness that various audience members exhibited when they returned. The audience overall was much smaller for the post-intermission part of the performance. Many people (including the group I was with) were primarily interested in hearing the guest soloist from the first half of the performance. Having sat through the whole performance, I have to say that the first half was the much better half–the guest soloist from the second half was kind of blah. And tickets were reasonably priced, why not attend the first half and then leave to enjoy watching the basketball game live?
Of course, that was different from this incident, because the people who left did so at intermission, distracting no one. It was quite noticiable that many people had not returned, but it wasn’t a problem.
No I didn’t because that doesn’t appear in the OP. The OP states
Maybe my reading comprehension isn’t up to par but I see no mention of the tourists having so decided beforehand. That may indeed have been the case, but it’s not in the OP.
Looks to me from your quotes that they decided beforehand. Otherwise, how did they know that they should leave to watch the fireworks?
A couple of years ago, while I was visiting friends out of state, I attended a community theater group’s production. The star was a soap opera actor, fairly well-known in the genre, who was probably doing this in his off-season. The friends who my husband and I were visiting had season tickets, and invited us along as their assigned date matched our visit.
I watched the show, dreadfully bored as this actor steamrolled through the part without much subtlety or real character. He could perhaps make people believe his passion on the small screen, but had no connection with the women who he was supposed to woo on stage. (The other actors were quite good, I’ll add.)
At intermission, we four stood up and walked outside. As a group, we kept walking - all the way back to the car. My husband was the only one who didn’t figure out the plan until we were actually outside of the building and pointed towards the parking lot; he’d assumed we were stretching our legs. He was also really not interested but figured he was just being “uncultured” or something for not enjoying it, and valiantly tried hard.
To wrap up the long story (no chance of making it short now) that is how you leave a live performance; wait for the goddamned intermission so you don’t annoy others with blocking their view, making noise, and so on. People these days have no concept of how to behave at live shows - you’re not just disrupting the people around you, but people many rows back and also even the performers.
It was an inference. They knew when the fireworks started, and they knew how long the performance was.
Maybe they had Britten off more than they could chew?
Seriously, it sucks and it is rude and they are jerks.
I’m curious to know whether the fireworks could be heard from inside the opera house and if that was also a distraction to the last part of the performance?
Why don’t you go see an opera, then? St. Louis ain’t New York or Milan, but it’s got opera. Opera Theatre, Union Avenue, and various University productions. If you’re really interested, I could give you more information.
I’m planning on going this summer, actually! 
Ditto, if it was there, I’d be willing to pay for Marilyn Manson. Actual music would be a huge plus
The music concerts during any town’s Fiestas are timed to there is no music going on during the midnight fireworks displays, but dangit, most towns are small enough to hear the fireworks from anywhere. It would be completely discourteous to the musicians to have them trying to fight that.
I’m curious to know if they were really Americans - the OP doesn’t say.
Come on, it’s Britten - the two guys kiss and make up, drifting away with the words “let us sleep now…”
Now that’s just mean.
(Of course, I was utterly unsurprised to learn that Peter Pears sang in the premiere.)
From what I can see of news reports, the concert was due for 8 pm on Tuesday, and the QM2 was to leave at 11 pm that night. Depends on how long the concert was running for, and how much time the concert-goers were allowed for boarding, but those 15 concert-goers may not have been passengers from the QM2 at all - just folks who heard that there’d be a fireworks display as the QM2 left Sydney Harbour. If so, I’d wonder why they’d pull out of listening to something they’d have paid big bucks for just for a light and crackle show they could see each NYE – but, you never can tell with some folk.
So if these folks’re at the Opera House at 8, the show starts getting going at 8:15. It’s 90 minutes long, so it’s possible if they were passengers of the QM2, they might’ve needed to leave at 9:15 in order to re-board the ship by 11. Libera Me kicks off the last half-hour of the Requiem. So they’re there for an hour, then leave.
I just realized the ships are too big to berth anywhere but a naval base, so I presume they were docked at Garden Island? I’ll say it again, the view from SOH to the bay with these two monumental ships surrounded by fireworks would have been a remarkable experience. Especially if they could still hear the War Requiem while the bursts and explosions are going off in the distance.
Uhhh … where did the OP say that they were Americans? I didn’t know US citizens had a monopoly on being crass. :rolleyes: