La Scala boos La Ceci

A shocking story from Milan.

La Scala's infamous loggionisti revealed they're still the least civilised audience in operadom at Cecilia Bartoli's first appearance there in 19 years last night.

Her concert with Daniel Barenboim and the La Scala orchestra went down well until the very end, when a small group in the upper galleries began booing and whistling and shouting “You don’t sing Rossini like this”, “Shame on you”, etc.

Graham Spicer, who was there, believes the attack was premeditated. Read his report (with photos) here.

Comments

[Alexander]

Scala probably is the only place where the audience shows some signs of pep ;) ...since the times when La Divina knocked off the raddish into the orchestra pit (if trust in what people once said ) ...the picture of Ceci is funny and her rounded eyes look similar to Albina Shagimuratova's ones here ;)

[Nik]

What a shame that there are still people whose primary aim in attending a performance is not to enjoy it, but to ruin it for everyone else and intimidate the artist. In their immature idiocy they're probably patting themselves on the back for upholding a proud tradition at La Scala, or something. Now, what's Italian for ASBO?

[Rannaldini]

They can be deeply sinister people. Many many years ago someone I knew was asked for money by a very old, well dressed, well groomed man who basically issued threats for money in the dressing room just before they were due to go-on. He was paid a couple of hundred to "secure the sympathy of the audience." When he went next door, he met his nemesis. The large bearded bass who shall remain nameless, punched him in the face, and then went on stage and performed excellently. Entirely true.

[sjt]

Milan still has professional claqueurs. House favourites employ their own, and have been known to bring them with them elsewhere (I can certainly think of a recent ROH Rigoletto who'd got his noisy cronies in).

Bartoli joins a distinguished club. Caballé, Pavarotti, Fleming have all been barracked and booed at La Scala. Given the malignant nature of the seedy riff-raff who do it, I should take it as a badge of honour if I were the diminutive mezzo...

And at this remove I doubt it's breaking much of a confidence to report that Fiorenza Cossotto used to pay out a small fortune to claqueurs who, though their immediate brief was to big up the mezzo, didn't always refrain from the easier corollary of booing the soprano as well.

[Les Mitchell]

I used to encounter a guy like this at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in the 1960's, when I was just out of my teens and could only afford to sit in the top balcony. In those days we had singers like Nilsson, Sutherland, Horne, Kraus, Tebaldi, Freni, Corelli, Bumbry, et al, and they were "regulars" in Chicago. But I digress. This very old man would scream "Bravi", "Bravo", and sometimes even boo after an aria, etc. He was positively disgusting, and those who were seated near him season after season were always complaining about his behavior. One night, he was seen exiting a star singer's dressing room (I don't remember which singer it was) carrying a couple of twenty dollar bills (which was a considerable sum at the time). There was only one conclusion one could draw. Stories were told that he tried to strike some kind of deal with Callas, and that she told him that she didn't need to pay for such applause. He booed her when she appeared, but his booing was literally buried in the huge applause and thunderous and hysterical audience euphoria.
This man, who was very old at the time, is now gone and forgotten, and we in Chicago no longer have to put up with this kind of behavior. At places like La Scala, Parma, Palermo, etc, this disgusting conduct is obviously still being tolerated. It is the management and administrative staff that are responsible for these idiots' gaining entrance to the opera in general. They do nothing for opera, nothing for the audience, and certainly nothing for the betterment of opera as an art form.
All of these old idiots will eventually die off ----- and with them, this kind of behavior, unless La Scala and other Italian theaters enable this kind of insane conduct to continue.

[AskMeAboutOpera]

I saw them, I've heard them, I was standing in a line with them. THEY ARE MEEEAAAN. really. Unbelievably hostile people. They are ruining your evening, and they are ruining evidently the appreciation of the artists... If you as co-audience experience this in real life, all the Scala-scandals of the past 234 years make sense - because somehow these people don't change. I'm sure it'n not an Italian thing, either an Italian Opera House thing - it's only a Scala loggionisti thing :)

[Giorgio]

I was in the concert. I never boo (it s simply my principle), but frankly, I understand that Bartoli got booed. She was literally inaudible in the big hall of La Scala. Barenboim had to drastically reduce the orchestra during her solo numbers, but still her voice was nearly inexistent. I was in the loggione and there was a very big number of people disappointed and angry. At the end, at least 15 people from all generations and groups were booing and commenting. Of course there were also many fans. On the Italian tv and journals they tried to reduce this "affair" to a "complot" from a belcanto-centered Italian blog based in Milano.
I think there is a certain point to why Bartoli was never able to affirm herself either at the Met or at La Scala. Her voice is just too small for these halls if she doesn't get microfoned.

[Nikolaus Vogel]

You really have to wonder why Cossotto would have to pay for applause, at La Scala of all places. There hasn't been an Italian mezzo of such majesty and opulence since she stopped singing on the international circuit. Yes she could be vulgar and famously played to the gallery - and the Callas widows will never forgive her for deliberately out singing a frail-sounding La Divina in her last Paris Normas -, but I still find it hard to believe she was intimidated by the claque. As Amneris, she could eat half a dozen Aidas and Radameses for breakfast.

[Nikolaus Vogel]

There will always be plenty of new idiots to replace him, young, middle-aged or old. To my way of thinking those who boo and bravo are either attention-seekers or, in the case of bravoers, usually friends, family or uncritical fans. Obverse sides of the same coin.

[Manou]

Surely paying a claque is the same as paying the Mafia for *protection*. The talent or even "majesty and opulence" of the singer is neither here nor there - you don't pay, you get booed.

[Uli]

Is it possible, that she was also booed for non-musical, political reasons: her Swiss residence, her Swiss husband, her criticisms of Italian cultural politics and especially her clear anti-Berlusconi stance?

[Sheila]

Still, shameful to boo her. Booing her for nonmusical reasons is even worse.

[Andres]

From a Q&A with El Mundo readers:

"History repeats itself. What happened to me happened to Kleiber, Pavarotti, Caballe, Callas, Barenboim, Mutti. It's a fabulous Opera House, I was christened." Q: Being booed at the Scala is an honour! A: "I agree (laughs)"

She is preparing Alcina and, given her predilection for Steffani, I would be great if Covent Garden could mount again that wacky Niobe, Regina di Tebe with her.

http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/encuentros/invitados/2012/09/28/cecilia-bartoli/index.html