Yahoo News Singer halts Symphony Hall concert and says 'this is distracting' as he attacks new rules
A singer halted his performance at Symphony Hall last night (April 17) to attack new rules set out by the CBSO. Tenor Ian Bostridge stopped after the third song in Britten’s Les Illuminations to request that people turn off their phone cameras saying they were 'extremely distracting'.
It comes after CBSO chief executive Emma Stenning laid out new audience rules stating that the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra was 'very happy' for people to take photos during concerts. The ruling has been condemned by Birmingham Post critic Norman Stinchcombe who questioned why "a performance by one of the finest British singers of the last fifty years, and a world-renowned interpreter of Britten, was interrupted by a handful of ... mobile-obsessed dimwits?"
And his thoughts were echoed by readers of SlippeDisc classical music site who commented on a report of the incident by posting: "It strikes me as extraordinary that Ms Stenning, the CEO, comes from a theatre background, and yet does not seem to know that phone cameras etc are the bane of actors’ lives. Why might she assume that musicians are different?
"I would not be at all surprised if Mr Bostridge never returns to Symphony Hall. Bravo him for standing up on this one. But one cannot be surprised at this absurd situation if the CBSO management positively encourage this. Audiences are now getting mixed messages… Surely it would have been better to have left it as things were. It is the CBSO management who have caused this upset. Poor leadership here."
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A CBSO spokesman said: "Tenor Ian Bostridge briefly stopped last night’s performance as he was distracted by a member of the audience using their phone. The CBSO’s current guidance around mobile phone usage (which can be found here) states: 'We are very happy for you to take photographs and short video clips at our concerts, but please refrain from recording the whole performance. We do ask that you are mindful of disturbing other audience members and therefore ask that you dim the brightness on your phone, take pictures during applause breaks and do not use your flash'.
"The CBSO remains supportive of audiences being able to use their phones at appropriate moments during our concerts."
Birmingham Post reviewer Norman Stinchcombe added: "Did the CBSO’s chief executive Emma Stenning attend this concert? One hopes so because she would have been able to see the early fruits of the silliest of her new innovations. The orchestra and soloist Ian Bostridge were about a quarter of the way through Britten’s ‘Les Illuminations’ when the tenor motioned to conductor Gergely Madaras, raised his hand and halted the performance.
"He addressed a small group in the audience who had been filming him on their mobile phones and said: 'Their lights are shining directly in my eyes – it’s very distracting. Would you please put your phones down.'.
"A performance by one of the finest British singers of the last fifty years, and a world-renowned interpreter of Britten, was interrupted by a handful of intellectually challenged mobile-obsessed dimwits. Their antics are positively encouraged by the orchestra’s administrators who print this in the concert programme. Perhaps Stenning will castigate Bostridge for encroaching on the liberty of the officially-sanctioned mobile movie makers? One feels that anything is possible under this barmy new dispensation."
