Tuesday, November 25, 2014

The National Theatre and the crunchy noises



Yesterday evening we went to the National Theatre where we listened to a concert given by the The Youth Orchestra ASEAN-Russia to celebrate Myanmar's 2014 Chairmanship of ASEAN. We also watched some traditional Myanmar dancing and singing. Beautiful traditional costumes!


The room was not full even if the entrance was free. It was a good concert with young talented artists who played Tchaikovsky, Strauss, Bizet, Verdi...


But the reason I am writing this post is to tell you about the audience and the atmosphere.  

We had heard that when Myanmar people go to the cinema they bring food, drinks and enjoy the movie with loud comments or laughter as if they were in their living room. But we did not know that the same is true for concerts. We would have thought the locals would be, like us, immersed in music. We took our seats and listened to the introductory speech when suddenly, behind us, four ladies took out sunflower seeds and starting eating, making loud and crunchy noises. We looked behind and could not believe our eyes. We moved seats, luckily the room was not full. Nevertheless we could notice some other families with children who where around us and who happily ate and made comments during the performance.

Next time probably we will take a seat in the first row to make sure the music is loud enough to cover these sounds. And maybe the people in the first rows are more interested in the performance than in socialising and eating in a concert hall.




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