In Mozart's time what was happening on the stage was a footnote to eating, talking, flirting, seeing, and being seen. Opera was a social event with background m

In Mozart's time what was happening on the stage was a footnote to eating, talking, flirting, seeing, and being seen. Opera was a social event with background music. Treating art with reverence and rapt attention didn't get to be a thing until the late Enlightenment. Before that the kind of art you took seriously was religious, and the idea that you were supposed to reverent about it could be considered a carry-over from religion. Talking over things and not paying attention is almost the default. Sitting still and concentrating on a performance of any kind is a relatively recent idea. None of this makes the crapification of Netflix (and related trends in other media touched by streaming and tech) any less annoying.