Since an outbreak last year of rowdyism in musical theatre, the question of how audiences should behave during live performances has been burrowing its way into the heart of the cultural establishment. It has now popped its head up in the classical music world, where it is not about sprayed beer and dancing in the aisles, but phone etiquette at concerts.
The debate was sparked when the tenor Ian Bostridge halted a recital in Birmingham because he was being distracted by people recording him. He later discovered that he was out of line with policy at the Symphony Hall, home to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO), which welcomed its audiences to take photographs and short video clips. The resulting set-to, with supporters deluging the orchestra with complaints about the policy, and its management promising to clarify and refine but not withdraw it, casts an interesting light on efforts to build new audiences in a sector that has been struggling to find its way in a straitened economy at a time of rapidly changing habits.
The CBSO is not alone in seeing the mobile phone as a potential asset, both in making a younger and more diverse audience feel at home, and in reeling them in. “Just remember to tag us on your wonderful photos so we can share your evening,” says English National Opera, which encourages pictures of curtain calls, though not of performances themselves. Other venues take different lines, with London’s Wigmore Hall and Royal Opera House operating a strict no-recording policy, while Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall pursues a bespoke approach, consulting musicians, in all but classical concerts.
The problems for performers are clear – not only distraction, as in Bostridge’s case, but being caught on the blink, or on a bad day. But even they are not unanimous. The violinist Esther Abrami, who has built large followings on TikTok and YouTube, recently said that tagging felt like the modern equivalent of getting flowers after a performance, “only concertgoers can show you the particular moments that felt special to them”.
On the audience side, the pro-mobile argument rests substantially on the belief that they are part of the lifestyle of young people, who are allowed to use them at other cultural events. In live comedy, however, there is a general understanding that it is in nobody’s interest for jokes to go viral before the end of a run. And a decade-long survey of ticketing data suggests that this view may anyway be patronising, with respondents reporting that they would on balance be put off by phones in performances, even if they were under 35 and new to the arts.
A cautionary tale of the extremes to which unfettered licence can lead was demonstrated by a report that the Louvre is considering moving the Mona Lisa to its own room to accommodate the hordes of visitors wanting to take selfies in front of it. For years they have made it impossible to enjoy of one of the world’s most famous paintings.
It is in nobody’s interest for classical concerts to become extended selfie sessions, where the right to record trumps the entitlement to listen and watch in real time. That is the whole point of live performance. But phones are not going away, and the viral energy they generate has a role to play in the marketing strategies of ambitious cultural venues. Finding consensual limits – as many venues have done, for instance, with relaxed performances for people with disabilities – is going to be part of their future. Sometimes, it will involve saying no.
