How many here were participants in Classicalinsites?

[MusicalDream]

In the Socialist Republic of Romania concerts (I mean concert halls or opera houses) were never free. Cheap, yes, but even today they are relatively cheap, except for opera where they are quite expensive. The audience, though, was thoroughly "bourgeois", or better said "middle-class": the vast majority of non-musician/non-artist concert-goers then as now were doctors, lawyers, teachers, professors, engineers and other highly educated professionals. The "working class" then as now preferred more popular genres of music. The theater audience, on the other hand, were indeed more mixed, probably because tickets for plays were sold not only at the box office but also through trade unions (state-controlled, obviously)

And btw, the notion that communist regimes were truly classless societies is false. There was both aristocracy (Party nomenklatura) and bourgeoisie (managers and top white collars of the state-owned factories, banks and commercial firms). And in stark contrast with the "capitalist" regimes, education or entrepreneurial spirit were not vehicles for upward social mobility: loyalty to the Party or membership in the Securitate (Secret Political Police) were. You could be a barely literate former shoemaker apprentice --- if you were fanatically loyal to the Party you could little by little ascend to the highest office in both the Party and the state: Ceaușescu. Conversely, you could be highly educated and extremely competent in your field --- if you were not both a Party member and its supporter (be it sincerely or oportunistically) or a covert agent of Securitate you had no chance to advance your career.

I did not know that about Romania and the classical music concerts, I know very little about Romania.

Definitely agree with the second part about communist societies, I've got family from various former communist countries (which honestly was several countries throughout the world that at least gave it a try). Every single one of those countries (whether it was in Europe, Asia, or Africa) had party-loyalty or obedience to the leader of the country as a requirement for a lot of the jobs, even if the person in question was totally incompetent. But apparently they all tried to copy the Soviet style of doing things because of their attempt at worldwide influence. In addition, I also did not think it was truly a classless society based off of my family's experiences and reading history books.