Using classical music to rid railway stations of undesirables. (longish)

[cliffd@opera.iinet.net.au (Douglas CLIFFORD)]

>From The Boston Globe, December 31, 1998, page 1:

   Montreal Metro: tenors vs. toughs
   
   Subway stations blast opera to chase off loiterers
   
   By Colin Nickerson, Globe Staff, 12/31/98
   
   MONTREAL - Music, it is said, has charms to soothe the savage
   breast. But does it pack sufficient wallop to clear a subway
station
   of loutish loiterers?
   
   Opera has become the latest weapon employed by Montreal's Metro
system
   to chase off youthful toughs who loaf about downtown stations,
   demanding spare change from passersby, chain-puffing cigarettes
under
   ''No Smoking'' signs, cussing, spitting, and generally making life
   unpleasant for real subway riders.
   
   The police can't seem to frighten them away. But Metro officials
   reckon the late diva Maria Callas or tenor Luciano Pavarotti might
   just do the trick.
   
   Montreal is already claiming success, saying that there are fewer
   young idlers strutting about the city's busiest subway station and
   that regular riders are being hassled less since the opera started
   booming. Other Canadian cities have used classical music to repel
bad
   characters from public spots, but Montreal is the first to resort
to
   hard-core opera.
   
   In a debut underground performance, strains of ''Tristan und
Isolde,''
   ''Don Carlos,'' and other epic operas are blaring from loudspeakers
in
   the busy entranceway of Berri-UQAM station, a favorite hangout for
   young vagrants.
   
   ''These kids don't like opera, and that's why we're using it,''
Serge
   Savard, spokesman for the Montreal Urban Transit Commission, told
   reporters. ''If they didn't like country music, we would play
country
   music.''
   
   Opera lovers, however, are incensed by what they see as yet another
   insult to an underappreciated art form. ''We think it is a blow to
   opera, using it as a negative thing and something offensive,'' John
   Trivisonno, spokesman for L'Opera de Montreal, told Canada's
National
   Post newspaper.
   
   The test project is a new twist on an old tactic of psychological
   warfare. During the Korean War, for example, American soldiers
   bombarded Communist troops with ''God Bless America'' and such
homey
   musical tortures as ''Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree.'' North
Koreans
   fired back with high-decibel odes extolling the virtues of
collective
   farming.
   
   The music is still blasting both ways along the Korean DMZ. But
   Montreal claims it is driving the adolescent foe into retreat, if
not
   total surrender.
   
   ''There are fewer young people loitering,'' said Savard. ''We have
   fewer complaints from our customers about being harassed by people
   blocking their way or begging for money.''
   
   Montreal has been noted for its safe, clean subway system. But
recent
   years have seen an invasion of some subway stations by loud gangs
   dressed in scruffy denim and leather festooned with chains. The
   self-described punks are perhaps less dangerous than they look.
Still,
   they can be aggressive and highly obnoxious, flipping smoldering
butts
   at people and cursing or even spitting on those who refuse their
   entreaties for change.
   
   ''It's not the ambience we want,'' Savard said.
   
   So the Metro is turning to the big guns: Wagner's ''Ride of the
   Valkyries,'' Rossini's ''Barber of Seville,'' even Puccini's
''Madama
   Butterfly.''
   
   The ringing arias and piercing high notes may be driving off the
   riffraff. But the assault has also wounded the sensibilities of
opera
   fans. Many are outraged that their beloved music has become a sort
of
   auditory cudgel, in a league with the ear-splitting siren blasts
that
   the Japanese use to rid airport runways of noisome seabirds.
   
   ''This shows true contempt for the art form,'' said L'Opera's
   Trivisonno, complaining that the project ''is a blow to punks as
well,
   because it says they aren't able to appreciate anything that is
   foreign to them.''
   
   In resorting to opera, Montreal is following in the classical
   footsteps of other Canadian cities, which have discovered that
   symphonic sound is the most powerful of persuaders when it comes to
   clearing off youthful miscreants.
   
   The country's largest city, Toronto, as well as Alberta's Edmonton
and
   New Brunswick's Moncton are among the centers piping classical
music
   into public places for the purpose of scattering gangs, although
the
   same strains have a side benefit of soothing everyday people.
   
   Toronto uses Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms to shoo punkers from
   crime-plagued subway stations. In Edmonton, oboe concertos have
chased
   drug dealers from downtown parks. Moncton, meanwhile, plays piano
   sonatas along a stretch of the main street as a way of scaring off
   packs of teenage troublemakers.
   
   ''It has had a real, measurable effect: There's been a reduction in
   crime, a reduction in problems, and kids don't hang around
anymore,''
   said Mike Walker, chief security officer for the Toronto Transit
   Commission.
   
   However, he jokingly told a Toronto newspaper, by cranking up the
   opera, Montreal may be playing a bit too rough.
   
   ''We use classical here. We don't use opera,'' he said. ''We
wouldn't
   do that to anyone.''
   
   This story ran on page A01 of the Boston Globe on 12/31/98.

-- 
Ron Newman             rnewman@thecia.net
http://www2.thecia.net/users/rnewman/
Douglas CLIFFORD                   +61 8 9390 7006 h
PO Box 119                         +61 8 9324 6444 w
Kelmscott                          +61 8 9324 6400 fx
Western Australia         <cliffd@opera.iinet.net.au>
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