Dress Code for the Opera

[RalofTyr]

Underwear or nude, if it's one of those shows.

 

[PvtFreddy]

Oh please! You should never think like that - "in over my head". You're enjoying writing it? What have you got to lose? Go for it.

Well, this is certainly, a seriously good boost for moral. Never thought of it like this, my writing of course. I've always tried to be such a perfectest with everything i do, even my writing.

Anyway, I finished the 1st draft of that chapter last night . Can't wait to finish the whole thing to go back over it and give that extra boost .

Cheers though

 

[VX250]

A white tuxedo with pastel detailing.

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

To add my encouragement - it doesn't matter how daunting it seems, writing is worth doing. Don't worry too much about what other people think, either. And if it turns out to be full of errors, call it science fiction and say it's set in an alternate universe where they dress differently to go to the opera.

 

[Verbose]

Hmm... I forget to mention sorry, the book I'm writing is fantasy based but I'm looking to base it on an era like the 17th and 18th Century. If anyone has read the Robin Hoob book series The Shaman Crossing, might have a good idea of what I'm talking about.

But thanks for the comments guys,

Okidoki!

Great idea, go for it, as others have said!

Now, to opera!

It's the 17th c. (or the 18th), check. Opera at this stage is ITALIAN opera. BUT what people wear and what kind of crowd you get depends on where the opera is staged.

Opera is an art for kings, so a lot of opera is concentrated in the opera houses built for the courts - French court, Austrian court etc.

Forget about tuxedos, tails etc. as formal wear. They're all 19th c. fashion. The courtly and/or uppercrust audience woul wear their best clothes according to the fashion of the day in general. If it's Italian opera in western or central Europe, they will look like the Paris fashion. I.e. something like this:

The image is a shot from the French historical movie about Louis XIV "Le roi danse" (the king dances), which is very much a film about 18th c. French monarchical power and opera, of course.
It certainly was a pretty weird environment and the movie is visually stunning, so by all means check it out if looking for inspiration about the look and feel of 18th c. opera.

There would be socially mixed opera audiences as well, particularly in Italy where opera was a popular (as in folksy) art form. The less affluent part of the opera audience would wera no special clothes and be up in the cheap standing-only seats in the section up under the roof of the opera house known as "the Gods".

I guess you must already have thought about snooping about for literature about opera house architecture.

Otherwise this is a nice 18th c. opera house still maintained in historical condition in Sweden, built right by the summer residence of the kings of Sweden, and their court, in the 19th c., "The Drottningholm Opera House". King Gustaf III of Sweden himself might have strutted his stuff on stage, just like Louis XIV of France a century before him would dance the ballet literally as the Sun King:

 

[aluka]

Verbose is correct. The tuxedo was a much later development in dress.

As for today: here in Australia these days you mostly see dark suits (with or without ties, though I always prefer to wear one). Occasionally you see a tuxedo. I'm thinking of buying one soon. I don't like the current trend of more casual dress; particularly on such evenings.

 

[PvtFreddy]

Okidoki!

Great idea, go for it, as others have said!

Now, to opera!

It's the 17th c. (or the 18th), check. Opera at this stage is ITALIAN opera. BUT what people wear and what kind of crowd you get depends on where the opera is staged.

Opera is an art for kings, so a lot of opera is concentrated in the opera houses built for the courts - French court, Austrian court etc.

Forget about tuxedos, tails etc. as formal wear. They're all 19th c. fashion. The courtly and/or uppercrust audience woul wear their best clothes according to the fashion of the day in general. If it's Italian opera in western or central Europe, they will look like the Paris fashion. I.e. something like this:

The image is a shot from the French historical movie about Louis XIV "Le roi danse" (the king dances), which is very much a film about 18th c. French monarchical power and opera, of course.
It certainly was a pretty weird environment and the movie is visually stunning, so by all means check it out if looking for inspiration about the look and feel of 18th c. opera.

There would be socially mixed opera audiences as well, particularly in Italy where opera was a popular (as in folksy) art form. The less affluent part of the opera audience would wera no special clothes and be up in the cheap standing-only seats in the section up under the roof of the opera house known as "the Gods".

I guess you must already have thought about snooping about for literature about opera house architecture.

Otherwise this is a nice 18th c. opera house still maintained in historical condition in Sweden, built right by the summer residence of the kings of Sweden, and their court, in the 19th c., "The Drottningholm Opera House". King Gustaf III of Sweden himself might have strutted his stuff on stage, just like Louis XIV of France a century before him would dance the ballet literally as the Sun King:

This is great information, thank you. As for architecture of an opera house, I need to do some research on it. The problem with this is where I live in Devon, England, we have no opera house. The nearest thing we have is the Theater Royal and that is grand, but no ways my image of an opera house.

Anyway, I've actually began the next chapter and my strengths in this chapter are coming through as a big theme about it is oppression, and having done World War II history and Napoleonic War history, I know a lot about this subject.

Anyway, giving the game away a bit here

 

[Bigfoot3814]

For a second I thought this thread was called: "Dress code for the Obama"