La Scala concert is halted by ringing phone

From a correspondent, special to slippedisc.com:

This evening during the second repeat of the concert of Verdi’s Choruses and Symphonies conducted by Riccardo Chailly a mobile phone rang insistently at the moment of greatest emotion, the chorus Patria oppressa from Macbeth.

The maestro interrupted the performance and turned to the heckler, chilling him: ‘Go ahead and answer, we’ll continue later’ and then to the audience: ‘you see, friends, there are many of us on this great Verdi journey with the orchestra and choir of La Scala, but this isn’t all because we are making a recording for Decca in London so there will be many more of us. This is a big deal. ‘Patria oppressa’ with the ‘obstinato’ of the mobile phone is just not possible’. T

Then, after a long applause from the audience, he resumed the performance.