At La Scala, a phone flies
OperaIt is reported that a mobile phone flew into the lower seating during Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail, hitting a spectator.
The abashed owner of the phone has not come forward to claim it.
The performance, conducted by Barenboim protege Thomas Guggeis, continued without further incident.
The phone fell from a box. Google translate got it wrong.
It was a Box Offish Hit
It felt from the top or 2nd-top box, on house right close to the stage. I was there, directly opposite. The phone’s screen was illuminated and quite visible as it tumbled down, hitting another box railing before hitting a man in the head. The audience murmured but the show continued without a hitch. He seemed quite bothered and was visibly holding his head for a while after. BUT he stayed for the rest of the show (at least an hour).
I’m surprised the audience didn’t throw it back. Kinetic theater. We might be on to something to increase audience engagement.
It might be a nice phone…..worth hanging on to………
The debut of Das Fliegende Handy.
Then it is reported erroneously – palco is box not stage. Probably some bloody idiot leaning over to take pictures – the l time I was at La Scala there were moments when the flashes were like lightening and the ushers did nothing to stop it.
Somebody phoning in their performance maybe?
Actually intended as a prop for La Voix Humaine until they realised it didn’t have a cord.
I believe La Voix Humaine libretto calls for a corded rotary phone.
Someone forgot to pay the loggionosti?
I believe this is a PHONE-Y story!
☎
Puns such as this are not the lowest level of humor. Clever comment
The last time I was in La Scala (2018, for a recital by Christian Gerhaher) I was in a box, and below me in the orchestra section was a woman reading something on her bright phone in the darkened hall. The ushers did nothing. I went downstairs at intermission and asked her to stop. She was very apologetic and turned off her phone, but my reverence for La Scala had evaporated. Members of the audience were also wearing t-shirts and jeans. Sacrilegious!
“Members of the audience were also wearing t-shirts and jeans. Sacrilegious!”
People always complain. “Why do you wear t-shirts and jeans?”, “Why are you naked?”.
You can’t please everyone.
There goes the tired okd argument about dress code holding back people from attending classical concerts and opera.
i have seen guests wearing tea shirts
at weddings.
Have you travelled economy (aka ‘cattle’) on an aircraft recently? The BO is completely free, as are the visual disturbances of graffiti on all exposed body parts, the torn jeans and the minimalist footwear.
I must have heard at least a half dozen phones hit the ground at last week’s LA Phil concert. Is it so difficult to put them in a jacket pocket or purse?
Those would be significant projectiles from any height, let alone a balcony. What is it with people and their fetishization of phones? The urgent need to be connected analogous to the President and his direct line to the Pentagon. And I’m sure equally as significant.
At L.A.’s Walt Disney Concert Hall, where I go every week, you hear cell phones dropping to the floor at every concert, and audience clapping at every long fermata silence, especially if it’s followed by very loud music. (Note: I did not say at the end of a movement.)
I wonder if the name of the venue provides any hints?
Probably the most interesting moment of the performance…