During the magic flute, out of all operas, a woman got scolded for chatting with her daughter during the recitatives. "Its hard to follow whats going on with your chattering" Stupid people. I think they just like to clap. How irritating is it when you got see Carmen and they clap before the overture is done? Why do they clap? Well everyone else is doing it, I don't want to look like an idiot so Ill do it too! What was so wrong about chatting during the spoken parts? In fact, its a perfect time to discuss what they just heard!
To clap or not to clap, that is the question. Of course, it's only a function of "modern" (ish) expectations of concert hall etiquette. Most composers of a certain time expected their works to be interrupted with applause, cheers, and calls for repetition. They might not have liked it, but it happened. Stravinsky had a riot over
Sacre, and we complain about chatter?
I generally don't think classical is dead, but entombing it early will go far to killing it off. People can't understand? They're rebuked in no uncertain terms when they commit a faux-pas, which hasn't been a faux-pas very long in the grand scheme of things. They're told that if they find it difficult, that's their fault. Why would they want to understand? It's not dead, but one must find a balance between turning into a diversion for the cultural
élite and abusing the works with making them "accessible." More to the point, I am not sure that the
élite in question has had the title for thirty or forty years now, so there's another veneer of relevancy with which to grapple.