Wild times: Covid booing brings down Madrid curtain after overture
mainTeatro Real in Madrid was forced to suspend last night’s performance of Un Ballo In Maschera as the audience was booing loudly because of lack of security and sanitation measures.
People in the upper balconies did not have proper social distancing between seats.
Full story in Scherzo:
The orchestra played the overture between clapping hands and shouts of “out, out!”
How can people attend concerts in these appalling conditions
It was, afterall, a MASKED Ball, at least all the singers were protected.
With a headline like this the questions are why was a performance scheduled and why did anyone attend:
Europe sees sharp rise in the number of new coronavirus cases, as Spain and Russia infections spike
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/01/europe-coronavirus-resurgence-spain-and-russia-see-infections-spike.html
Yes, and why the patrons didn’t leave the minute they arrived and saw the situation.
They should just be grateful that an opera is being performed. If you don’t like it leave. Don’t ruin it for everyone else.
I see where you’re going with this…as in “it’s their funeral”. Psychopathy lives!
Thank you. That’s very thoughtful.
Insiders are saying this was a planned disruption. A group of people came that nite to deliberately prevent the opera from going forward. Apparently mgt. tried everything from reseating to offering refunds. A small group of people just kept yelling an booing no matter what. A claque. Interesting that a claque was involved in Teatro Real’s last production, Traviata, with an organized plan to demand an encore for one of the stars.
One of the problems of Teatro Real is that its design is awful. Lots of its seats have limited or no view at all, especially as you go to the upper balconies. Teatro Real shouldn´t have sold so many seats upstairs, knowing that people would loose view if they changed their seats.
I have been told that several people from the low visibility sector moved to empty seats in a better area. The problem was, those places were supposed to stay empty. In a covid situation, people should be forbidden to move from their assigned places.