Covent Garden bans the man who booed boy singer
NewsTwo tweets from the ROH about last night’s deplorable incident.
Unfortunately, the opening night of Alcina featured an audience member who disrupted the show and the excellent performance by young singer Malakai M Bayoh.
[1/2]— Royal Opera House (@RoyalOperaHouse) November 9, 2022
We are appalled that a member of the audience behaved in this way and steps have been taken to ensure the audience member in question does not return to the Royal Opera House.
[2/2]— Royal Opera House (@RoyalOperaHouse) November 9, 2022
Quick work.
Malakai is pictured here with Scott Price, his music teacher at Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School.
UPDATE: This was Malakai taking his curtain call:
Malakai taking his bow this evening at the Royal Opera House. #rohalcina pic.twitter.com/F4L51TFeNY
— Cardinal Vaughan Music (@CVMSMusic) November 8, 2022
Fantastic news. Np place for booing in Britain, and no place for what could be classed by our sensible laws as verbal child abuse.
There is a difference between booing (at the end of a performance, against the bravi) and disrupting, in the middle of a performance.
The “loggionisti” at La Scala do boo anyone and everyone, but the point would be, at which moment.
Previous news:
“He was neither evicted nor sanctioned. The ROH needs to respond to this, and fast.
The booer derseves to be named and shamed.”
Banning badly behaving audience members, or critics, is certainly legal, but what about that naming and shaming? In a British procession, with great pomp?
Lesson: Never subscribe with your name, never pay with a credit card, never have your tickets mailed to your home or sent to your personal email account.
If they can’t trace you, they can’t ban you.
Next up: no booing in Parliament.
This wasn’t Parliament. MPs are adults. This was a 12 year old.
I’m sure I’m far from alone in suspecting racism was at the core of this audience member’s behaviour …
Actually, by American standards, it’s odd hearing debates in Parliament often accompanied with catcalls or loud shouts of disapproval. But the US”s Congressional chamber compared with that of the UK’s Parliament is not politically so “above it all.” It’s merely differences in culture and tradition.
In general, everything and everyone is very political, even more so in the first half of the 21st century.
This was a child not Starmer or Sunak.
This is a terrible lesson in life in the arts: if you can’t sing, we’ll ban the audience.
Maybe the booer was the father another child who auditioned. Anyway, what a dreadful thing to do. I will never understand how mean spirited people are. What a sad man – he clearly needs to find another hobby
What kind of Neanderthal do you have to be to do something like that. High culture?
Should be banned from civilisation. Left on an uninhabited island somewhere.
You sound like fun.
Was it the same guy who kicked off in (and was kicked out of) Vienna the other day?
Maybe someone has decided to become an itinerant opera nuisance.
What – the ROH still has a Twitter account?
And boo to you.
Racist idiot.
Poor little boy I hope he’s ok.
What’s racist about not liking people singing out of tune?
A child of 12, not someone with 12 years of music college level study.
Did he sing out of tune? I wasn’t there so I’m not sure what the booing was for.
Good!
Bravo Malakai! Do not let anyone get you down!
Bravo indeed. I was there: it was a deeply shocking outburst. Inexcusable behaviour which risked enormous damage to a very young artist. I hope Malakai was heartened by the roars of support that he received a few minutes afterwards, and at the end.
Booing adults isn’t great but booing a child is awful.
Agreed
All credit to Malakai who kept on singing apparently. I sincerely hope that the police have visited the booer. This is not about limiting free speech . This person could have vented his feelings of frustration to the ROH management or even the conductor at his curtain call for the choice of soloist if he wanted to. They are adults and can deal with it. This is about a 12 year old being mistreated by an audience member in mid public performance . Just because someone buys a ticket doesn’t mean they have the right to publicly mistreat/ try to shame a minor . There are child protection laws in the UK
‘I sincerely hope that the police have visited the booer. ‘
Oh for God’s sake!
And if this were your child, would your response be the same?
Yes, I have a sense of proportion.
Shocking idea to make accountable for their actions …
Yes, it is verbal abuse.
Every time I read commentary along these lines from a citizen of the UK, I thank God that I live in the United States, where free speech is protected by the Bill of Rights and not subject to the whims of an online mob. You hope that the police harass someone for booing a singer at the opera? Do you realize how insane that is?
The individual was likely a loon, and as distracting as such behavior is in the moment, it sounds like the child was a true professional who kept going, and has likely since figured out that the booing was coming from a moron, and not any sort of serious comment on his abilities. God bless him for his poise.
Was it appropriate to boo a child? No. Should the booer be banned from the ROH? Yes, especially if he’s a nutter who might pull this nonsense again. Should he be visited by the police, with an implicit fine or jail sentence? No, that is absolutely bonkers to suggest, and it’s frightening that you and others like you are so far-gone into an authoritarian mindset that you actually believe that anyone who ruffles your feathers should be tossed in jail or at the least, threatened by the police. Setting the law on your fellow citizens for crackpot behaviors will lead to a further erosion of free speech, and before you know it, the Old Bill will be knocking on YOUR door when you happen to express a “problematic” opinion online, including a critical review of someone else’s favorite singer.
Free speech in the US?
Are you sure you actually live here?
Good one, Anmarie!
(I live in San Francisco.)
Didn’t cancel culture originate in the US?
No, actually, that originated either in Nazi Germany or Commie Russia.
Yes, the US does have free speech, religion, and expression – in a sense that no sheriff will ever respond to the cries of the offended by speech. That would be Europe.
Other sanctions apply, perhaps even more.
…. The usual absolute tripe about the so-called virtues of ‘free speech’ in that land of unalloyed virtue. Free to murder people, let people carry (and frequently use) arms, use extremist language in public … Europe is such a cesspit …
Cardinal. Vaughan School is not the resilient Eton et al! It is a state Catholic school.
It’s not about booing a singer, it is about child verbal abuse and in public. God help any child of his behind closed doors, if he has any, and if he can do this act in public. There is a time and place for free speech and also about having respect.
In the UK, there was a video of a lawyer holding a piece of a blank paper, just to see what happens, and sure enough, the police paid him a visit: protesting against King Charles & monarchy might be offensive to some.
They had a chat, but wasn`t taken to the Tower. And the Bible-preaching pastors are also causing offense.
No offense in the police being increasingly unable to solve actual crimes anymore, apparently…
Bloody disgusting behaviour.
The incident itself (and, frankly, some of the comments here) just proves that, sadly, music doesn’t always civilize.
Some of the comments on here are revolting, and appear to seek to excuse the inexcusable under the guise of “free speech”! I despair sometimes.
Young girls in places like Keighley, Rotherham, Rochdale, Bradford, Oldham etc have been raped by the thousand, literally. The scale is enormous, but the arts world and the chattering classes have been generally silent because of the races involved. And for that same reason the authorities and the police, which same ridiculous people here are in such a hurry to involve, did nothing for years. No overt displays of compassion for white, working class girls, no reaching out.
It has been brought up on SD before but was met with almost complete silence. But now you are getting all worked up because one man out of over 2,000 booed a child. There are assumptions of racism with no evidence whatsoever.
The prejudice, hypocrisy and downright callousness are truly nauseating. You need to take a long hard look at yourselves. Sick to the core.
What sort of an individual would booh a child singing? Young people need to be encouraged to sing not discouraged by such action by an obvious imbecile.
What ever happened to the stiff upper lip of the Brits? If you’re an opera house or singer, this comes with the territory. I guess that’s what happens in Brexit-era England.
I’m going to guess there was alcohol involved. That lets out idiot opinions at family reunions, it probably works at the opera too.