Rayner criticised for attending the opera at Glyndebourne!

 

Angela Rayner at Glyndebourne Opera

Angela Rayner is right to say that culture is not the preserve of any social class or elite. It's only young Grammar School upstarts like Dominic Raab, who would  think so. The Deputy Prime Minister, probably thinks that the oiks are only interested booze, bingo, baccy and Benidorm.

In my life I have been friendly with four people who were complete opera buffs and were experts on the subject of opera - cognoscenti. One was a copytaker on the newspapers, another was a steeplejack, another was a mill worker, and the other was retired. I've met many working-class people who had an interest in classical music.

The great Italian tenor, Enrico Caruso, famously said that when he performed, he always sang for the people in the cheap seats, up in the gods. At La Scala Milan, the opera purists are known as the 'Loggionisti' because they occupy the cheap seats in the theatre, in the upper gallery. The term 'loggione', literally means - 'the cheap seats'. They're also known as the 'Hissing Hooligans' because they will boo what they consider to be a poor performance from a singer which can be devastating. In 2006, the Franco-Sicilian tenor, Roberto Alagna, stormed off the stage at Las Scala, during a production of Aida when he was booed from the cheap seats. Alagna, vowed never to return.