Audience fist-fight during Brahms 2

[Mr Pee]

I reckon it was Simon Rattle and Roger Norrington arguing over the use of vibrato.....

http://www.suntimes.com/11183105-417/orchestra-brawl-fistfight-in-elite-seats-stuns-symphony-patrons.html

[cloughie]

I reckon it was Simon Rattle and Roger Norrington arguing over the use of vibrato.....

http://www.suntimes.com/11183105-417/orchestra-brawl-fistfight-in-elite-seats-stuns-symphony-patrons.html

Must be Muti - I seem to remember some years ago he was conducting Alexander Nevsky and it was interrupted by some protester - can remember who or why?

[scottycelt]

Probably just a couple of unduly aggressive 'Brahms & Liszt' Wagnerians ...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Blimey, and we think the discussions on whether or not to take the Exposition Repeats get heated on these Boards!

[amateur51]

Blimey, and we think the discussions on whether or not to take the Exposition Repeats get heated on these Boards!

[Petrushka]

Must be Muti - I seem to remember some years ago he was conducting Alexander Nevsky and it was interrupted by some protester - can remember who or why?

Goodness me that was years ago! Around 1985 perhaps? If memory serves me correctly Muti and the Philharmonia were playing Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky at the RFH with Irina Arkipova as soloist when anti-Soviet demonstrators disrupted the performance.

Anyway, this audience fist fight is something quite different with two individuals squabbling over a seat.

At one of the 1985 Proms I was sitting in the front row stalls where, in those days, the season ticket Prommers jealously guarded their territory. During the first half, Mozart 41, LPO/Tennstedt, the Prommers were energetically attempting to eject an interloper from their ranks and it got progressively nastier. The stewards clearly didn't want to know but I called one of them down to sort out the fracas. The performance of the Mozart carried on unaware of the disruption going on a few feet below. Imagine my laughter when that very performance was issued on BBC Legends without any 'noises off' in evidence!

I mentioned this on the old BBC boards and was astonished to have a response from Tony Faulkner who had remastered that recording for BBC Legends saying that no manipulation had gone on with the tape and it was exactly as issued which I had, of course, taken for granted.

Any more audience fist fights in anyone's memory?

[Ferretfancy]

One of the demonstrators at last year's Israel PO Prom had a punch up with an infuriated member of the audience right up on the top tier, and I thought they were both going to tumble into the Arena. This was a very unhappy episode for all concerned, and as it has been discussed at length on these boards before, I'll say no more.

I certainly think that in general audience behaviour is becoming more thoughtless, to put it kindly. A few months ago at the Barbican a woman was texting throughout the first item with a very brightly illuminated mobile which flashed like a mirror just two rows in front of me. As they were re-arranging the platform I asked her to stop, and there was an altercation just short of violence. All the people around me said nothing until the interval, and then told me that I was quite right to complain, but at the time they said nothing! I sometimes wonder why some audience members go to concerts at all, freebies I suspect.

[Chris Newman]

When Sadlers Well (now ENO) first moved to the London Coliseum they opened with Sir John Gielgud's dreadful production of Don Giovanni and and Glen Byam Shaw's brilliant The Mastersingers with Reginald Goodall conducting. The theatre had been closed for a few weeks to get the stage equipment working as for several years it had been a wide-screen cinema. The Wagner was my initiation and I ended up going 6 times. At one performance the overture was interrupted by shouting and a man had to be "helped" from the theatre for lashing out at his neighbours in the Upper Circle. The management apologised in the first interval. The unfortunate gentleman had bought a ticket for what he thought was going to be the religious epic film The Greatest Story Ever Told and was not happy when an orchestra started playing. He was about seven weeks late.

[amateur51]

When Sadlers Well (now ENO) first moved to the London Coliseum they opened with Sir John Gielgud's dreadful production of Don Giovanni and and Glen Byam Shaw's brilliant The Mastersingers with Reginald Goodall conducting. The theatre had been closed for a few weeks to get the stage equipment working as for several years it had been a wide-screen cinema. The Wagner was my initiation and I ended up going 6 times. At one performance the overture was interrupted by shouting and a man had to be "helped" from the theatre for lashing out at his neighbours in the Upper Circle. The management apologised in the first interval. The unfortunate gentleman had bought a ticket for what he thought was going to be the religious epic film The Greatest Story Ever Told and was not happy when an orchestra started playing. He was about seven weeks late.

Not a fist-fight as such but following on from Chris Newman's tale ... a friend & i went to ENO's production of Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre in the 1980s. It was certainly by no means full and there were several spaces to my right and then there was a solitary gent. The stage was aleady set, featuring halves of cars, a skeleton or two, coffins and undertakers, I think. The piece starts with a rather splendid chorale for motor horns, whereupion the gent shot bolt upright in his seat, leant over to me and asked in barely whispered alarm "Is this Don Giovanni?".

I advised him that is was not and he left at top speed

How he got in with the wrong ticket I do not know but it certainly made for a memorable start

[Ferretfancy]

amateur51

He could have waited for the ENO Don Giovanni which opened on a couple of cars on stage, and a row of street lamps with one car rocking as the Don had sex inside while Leporello looked on through the window. We left at the interval.

[amateur51]

amateur51

He could have waited for the ENO Don Giovanni which opened on a couple of cars on stage, and a row of street lamps with one car rocking as the Don had sex inside while Leporello looked on through the window. We left at the interval.

[Lord Mersey]

Thoughtless audience behaviour reminds me of the occasion at an RLPO concert many years ago when an audience member at the very front of the stalls kept shouting out during a performance of Tchaikovsky's 5th. The stewards expertly ushered him to the exit. However he then shouted out an expression I would not care to repeat here.

Unfortunately the concert was being recorded for a delayed broadcast. The conductor did not flinch and simply repeated the last movement again. The maestro was Valery Gergiev.