RELUCTANT BLOGGER 26: Much to agree with

I can't help agreeing with much in this article by opera critic Robert Thicknesse. When we are in the rehearsal room, I always imagine we are preparing a performance for people like us - and despite the occasional diva strop or difficult colleague, most people involved in the coalface of opera are pretty normal folk - but come the performances I always feel very uncomfortable surrounded by an audience from a very different world. Something has to change, but I don't know how.