Helsinki Airport plays opera and ballet while you wait
balletFinavia and the Finnish National Opera and Ballet this week installed a loop of opera and ballet at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport to distract passengers while they wait for flights and luggage.
The loop, lasting 20 minutes, includes extracts of Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty, with arias from Tosca, Turandot and Don Giovanni.
Makes a change.
The Metro in Mexico City used to play classical music all the time.
Imagine having a long layover there…nightmare !
Nice. They should go further in the future and show whole acts.
Excellent idea. I hope it starts to happen in other places.
Whether a 20-minute loop is long enough for airport delays is debatable!
George Dixon Academy in Birmingham has switched the siren that it used to use, to indicate the change of lessons, for whole tracks of music from albums. It is blasted out across the playing fields and can be heard half a mile away.
The first week was Michael Jackson’s Thriller, which apparently caused many complaints but which played 10 or more times a day from 8:40 onwards for the whole week. Week 2 was some trumpet piece. And the week just gone was a Maria Callas track.
The last two were much more bearable, and we wait with baited breath to find out what Monday brings. Apparently George Dixon is unable to alter things because the service is the responsibility of a third party. It certainly doesn’t give their students a good example of being a good neighbour!
Was there not a local council somewhere in England which played classical music in bus shelters – or some other such public space? As I recall, this was an attempt to cut down on crime. Presumably the intention was to drive hooligans and punks away rather than attract them!
Birmingham UK I believe.