Is there a tradition of locking the audience in the Bayreuth theater during the Ring des Nibelungen performance? I had read it somewhere. I was wondering if the tradition ever existed, and if so, is it still practiced today.
Oh my, one could, if one were so inclined, make a crack about the need to bar the exits during a 16-hour opera mit der Earschplittenshriekenlieder und Orkesterklangen - but one ought to resist.
How could this be allowed with fire safety regulations?
The thread was in GQ, next time please resist. No warning.
Besides, I just moved this Opera question to Café Society.
In the US the theater would never be allowed to lock people in, I find it hard to believe the German laws would allow such.
But - I was just making a funny - Gotterdammerung!
Okay, here’s a better answer. I found this sentence in a 14-year-old review of a Bayreuth Ring performance:
As the performance begins, the doors are locked, the lights dim, and all you see is an orange glow emanating from the Orchestergrab (literally “orchestra grave”).
I’m not sure if the writer meant it literally though. Might just mean they aren’t letting anyone in rather than out. You can read it here.
With most live theatre/performances, even down to a fairly informal recital at a village hall, there is a generally understood practice that guests arriving after the start of the performance will not be admitted until a convenient break. In some cases the policy of the venue could be no admittance until the (first) interval. I’m not familiar with the work in the OP, but as described in the post above, it appears that would be particularly important if the opening is dark and dramatic.
But as already stated, there’s no way a venue in modern Europe or North America would literally lock the doors such that exit in an emergency was not possible. Even in ‘escape rooms’, where you are notionally locked in until you solve all the puzzles to find the keys to exit, they tell you at the start that the door you came in is always unlocked, primarily for this reason.
Nitpick: the author made a transcription error. The word is not “Orchestergrab” (which indeed would mean orchestra grave), but “Orchestergraben”, which means orchestra pit.
I know from personal experience at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City you will not be admitted once the opera has started. They will take you into a room where you can watch a transmission of the opera. When there is a break between acts, you can enter (each opera is different but generally an act lasts 75 minutes with a break of 30 minutes). Oh, and turn off your cell phones when the lights go down. But I imagine if you have to leave in the middle of an act, you can…just consider your fellow patrons.
Indeed, the musical performances I’ve attended at symphony halls / opera houses all had this policy, which is quite sane. However it could be misconstrued as “locking the audience in” by comedians / trolls.