Ian Bostridge: The same man heckled Mathias Goerne

Ian Bostridge: The same man heckled Mathias Goerne

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norman lebrecht

September 04, 2016

In his first discussion of the incident since he took down an audience shouter at the Schubertiade at Schwarzenberg, the British tenor has told a German newspaper that the same man had disrupted a Matthias Goerne recital the previous night.

If that was so, why did the festival not take measures to exclude him? The more so when the elderly gentleman appeared to be disturbed. It’s all very well having a relaxed atmosphere, but the first duty of a festival is to protect its artists.

Interview here (auf Deutsch).

Ian Bostridge, Julius Drake - Schubert

Comments

  • Beaumont says:

    Wow – there are nutters in concerts, who would have thought?
    Singers (but also actors, conductors, instrumentalists) have had worse stuff screamed at them through the ages – try Italian opera houses for starters. This is a non-story which only gets repeated because it involved somebody screaming for better German. If it had happened in the UK or France nobody would have batted an eyelid.
    Or was Clint Eastwood right?
    http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/aug/3/clint-eastwood-blasts-pussy-generation-praises-tru/

  • Mike Schachter says:

    I was in Paris a few years ago when I heard an American tenor singing in French so awful that even I could spot it. The audience expressed forthright views.

  • Bruce says:

    [via Google Translate]

    “I just told him that he should even come out the stage so that he sees me, what it’s like up there to stand before an audience. He really could be then up lead from me. The audience booed him, I left him standing there and went backstage.”

    Not sure what “He really could be then up lead from me” means, but I like the idea of bringing the heckler onstage and leaving him there to face the audience.

    • Max Grimm says:

      “He then really let me lead him up [on stage].”

      • Bruce says:

        Ah. Thanks. Makes it sound like he did not drag the guy up there against his will.

        • Max Grimm says:

          Personally, I got the impression that Mr. Bostridge was more surprised than anything that the man in question actually consented to get on stage.

          • Bruce says:

            If I recall correctly, the dragging-the-man-onstage-against-his-will idea was put forward somewhere in the comment thread of the previous post about this (I’m not going back to try to find it). That’s what I was referring to, although I didn’t bother to say so. Anyway, yes, I agree Bostridge sounded surprised that the guy actually agreed. In any case, I’m glad he got to find out what it was like to be booed onstage. He wanted attention, and he got it.

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