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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Letters

Booing happens in opera houses, but is it acceptable or justifiable?

Malakai M Bayoh (right) in Alcina at the Royal Opera House in London.
Malakai M Bayoh (right) performing in Alcina at the Royal Opera House in London. Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The Guardian

I am surprised and disappointed that Martin Kettle should be proud to declare that he has occasionally booed at the opera, implying that this is a justifiable response when warranted (I’ve booed at the opera before. But what happened to a young soprano this week was plain cruel, 10 November).

It is not, it is yobbish. Just because it is done in some opera houses doesn’t make it right, and I think it entirely appropriate that the perpetrator in this instance has been banned by the Royal Opera House, rather like a football hooligan being banned from the terraces.

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