Opera audience 'had every right' to boo rape scene

There is a 'wonderful' tradition of ticket-holders expressing their opinions about performances, opera star says

Damiano Michieletto’s productuon of 'Guillaume Tell' at Covent Garden Credit: Photo: ALASTAIR MUIR

The audience had “every right” to boo at the rape scene, the star of Royal Opera House’s controversial William Tell production has said.

Gerald Finley, who plays the title role in the production, said there was a "wonderful" and "exuberant" tradition of ticket-holders expressing their delight and applause for singing they love, as well as the reverse.

Rossini's Guillaume (William) Tell production was toned down following criticism of a scene in which a woman was stripped naked and then assaulted by soldiers.

Sofia Fomina as the Son and Gerald Finley as Guillaume Tell, in Guillaume Tell at the Royal Opera House (Alastair Muir)

Audience members booed and heckled during the show's opening night of Italian director Damiano Michieletto's new take on the classic Swiss tale updated the story to take place during recent events in the Balkans.

"People have every right to express themselves," Finley, the Canadian baritone told Radio 4's Start the Week.

(Alastair Muir)

He added that it was common in Italian opera houses for audiences to make clear their disapproval if singers did not meet a certain style of singing.

He went on: "It's a situation we as international performers are not necessarily bothered by.

"It's an expression that perhaps has had a chance to unleash itself here in London for a brief moment. In subsequent performances it hasn't happened."

He added that he did not know what exactly the objections were to the production at the time of the booing, saying: "I don't know what they were booing [at]. You only hear the sound, you don't actually know what the criticism is".

The Monster in the Maze, Barbican, review: 'full-blooded'
The Rape of Lucretia, Glyndebourne: 'piercingly intelligent, immaculately realised'
Why does the Royal Opera House pay directors so much?

Following the audience reaction to the scene, the ROH’s director of opera, Kasper Holten, issued an apology to viewers for any distress caused.

The Royal Opera House wrote to thousands of ticket-holders to warn them of a graphic scene of "sexual humiliation" in its controversial new opera.

It also contacted hundreds of cinemas, which will be screening Guillaume Tell live on Sunday, to ask that the age rating be changed from a 12A to a more suitable 15.