Madam Butterfly is evacuated after bomb threat
mainWe hear from cast members in Klagenfurt that the opening night of a new production of Butterfly was abandoned at the end of “un bel di” as the result of a bomb threat. The theatre was evacuated and the show was called off.
The threat was a hoax.
A cast member tells us: ‘After the aria the curtains closed and the intendant informed all that the police had been notified that a bomb would go off in ten minutes time. We quickly exited the theatre, leaving all our belongings behind and the opera house was blocked off and searched by dogs for 2 hours. Nothing was found, but of course the performance couldn’t go on.’
With the times we live in, I fear that bomb threats, whether real or hoax, are likely to increase wherever large groups of people are assembled. Understandably all must be acted on speedily with all the consequent disruption, time of the emergency services, cost etc. Yet with all the technology now available, is there no way at least some of the hoax callers can be identified and then prosecuted heavily and a lien put on whatever assets they may own? I doubt if we’ll ever get rid of such threats, but at least really heavy penalties might deter the copycat hoaxers.
Evacuating Madama Butterfly could turn out quite nasty. Having the choice between that and a bomb, difficult choice.