Angry audience drive soprano off stage

The audience at yesterday's Opéra d'Avignon rehearsal of La traviata were not at all pleased when Patrizia Ciofi started to walk through the part of Violetta without singing it. 

Feeling unwell, as she explained on her Facebook page, she preferred to save her voice for the first show. The hissing of the audience was so loud it forced the orchestra to stop, and the curtain had to be dropped.

Forumopera were quick to berate their fellow-Frenchies' disruption of a performance for which the artists were unpaid and the tickets were free.  As they rightly point out,  it's rather like booing a footballer for missing a penalty in a training session.

Comments

[londonkings]

Any idea whether the audience were warned? Find it had to believe hey would be so unsympathetic if the info had been properly communicated.

[Michael]

That is an absolute disgrace. If I were the General Manager I'd do rehearsals behind closed doors for the next twelve months.

[DrB]

Rehearsals are for working. If the audience misbehaves, you should just throw them out.

[yvette]

But Yesterday was a great opening matinée performance and I can assure you the audience was supportive and happy! As for sweetest Patrizia Ciofi, she was the best Violetta I've ever watched so far, she was utterly moving and moved too by the cheering audience. After the show she left her fans for an interview on Provence FR3 channel! so, there was a badly behaved audience for the drees rehearsal, but the true audience was back and loving on sunday!
http://www.pluzz.fr/jt-19-20-provence-alpes.html

[Nikolaus Vogel]

French audiences can be very stroppy!

[Rannaldini]

I agree with Londonkings. It seems rather strange. Could it be that maybe - just ya know - possibly, perhaps, maybe, the press have exaggerated a little - not that they would ever do such a thing for a quick headline?

[sjt]

The lesson to be learned here is never, ever trust certain opera house managements. They will announce singers they have yet formally to contract, then throw them to the wolves when they don't appear. They will manufacture scandal if they think it'll sell a few more seats. And they certainly won't bother keeping any audience informed about any singer's intentions or vocal status if they think there's more mileage to be got out of not doing so. La Scala in particular has a long and dishonourable track-record in this kind of business, and Paris certainly isn't immune either.