Opera vs Sichuan Opera

Tuesday night I had the pleasure of attending a musical cultural exchange. The US consulate set up a musical tour for an Opera singer (Carla Dirlikov) from the US to expose Chinese people to Western Opera.  At the same time, at least here in Sichuan, they arranged for some singers of Sichuan Opera to perform to educate the Western Audience about their Opera.  It was a very interesting evening.  Ms. Dirlikov was, of course, fantastic.  It's been such a long time since I've been able to go to an opera that I think my ears were starved for culture.  I was dreading the Sichuan opera part of the evening, but as it turns out, while I didn't love it, the Sichuan opera parts were very interesting.  The female singers are still a little too high pitched and nasally for me, but the male parts sound a great deal like American folk art singers.  Think George Clooney in O Brother Where Art Thou. Which leads me to believe that the musical traditions are not so different as we might think.
There were only two things that spoiled my enjoyment of the evening.  The first had to do with my seat, I was in the second row, which is awesome, but....  I was sitting with the photographers, and they were basically sitting in my lap to get their pictures.  The sound of their shutters, their cameras in my lap, and the constant standing and sitting were HIGHLY annoying.  Also I was right next to the speaker, which I hate in a theater performance anyway (if the theater is made correctly you shouldn't need speakers, especially not for Opera--OMG that just sounded snobby).  It was okay for Ms. Dirlikov because she stepped away from the microphone when she wanted to belt out a note, but the Sichuan Opera singers were piercingly high pitched.  My ears are still sensitive. 
The second thing was the audience.  I know it's like this in the US too, but I think it's really rude for people to answer phones during a performance of any kind.  If someone is making the effort to perform, or a give a speech, the least you can do is turn off your cell phone, or go outside to take your call.  Don't answer your phone in the theater and then have a conversation about what you want for dinner.  Please.