# Has a conductor ever been booed by the audience?



## Guest (Jun 15, 2012)

Hi!

Have you ever attended a classical concert where the audience booed the conductor at the end of a piece? What's the least positive audience response you've seen? Also, how can an audience express disfavor for a conductor's performance? Thanks! --Jacki


----------



## Jeremy Marchant (Mar 11, 2010)

Found this on the interweb, so I don't know if it is true, but it is corroborated by Wikipedia:

"On June 25, 1886, a touring Italian opera company was in Rio de Janeiro. Their Brazilian conductor had been doing a poor job, so he quit the job on the day of a scheduled performance. The assistant conductor was booed by the audience, then the chorus master was also booed, and then the only other member of the company qualified to do so stepped up and conducted the entire opera from memory. He was 19 years old, and his name was Arturo Toscanini. He led 18 more operas before the company returned to Italy, and his career was launched."


----------



## MaestroViolinist (May 22, 2012)

Jeremy Marchant said:


> Found this on the interweb, so I don't know if it is true, but it is corroborated by Wikipedia:
> 
> "On June 25, 1886, a touring Italian opera company was in Rio de Janeiro. Their Brazilian conductor had been doing a poor job, so he quit the job on the day of a scheduled performance. The assistant conductor was booed by the audience, then the chorus master was also booed, and then the only other member of the company qualified to do so stepped up and conducted the entire opera from memory. He was 19 years old, and his name was Arturo Toscanini. He led 18 more operas before the company returned to Italy, and his career was launched."


Awesome story might I just add.


----------



## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

I have booed a performance on a few occasions when I felt the conductor had no idea (nor any care) of what the piece was about. Audiences are far too polite now and will clap any old rubbish.


----------



## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Perhaps it happened to Glazunov when he conducted the premier of Rachmaninov's 1st Symphony - he was allegedly shitfaced but it's unclear as to whether the disfavour was earned by the conducting or the music.


----------



## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

elgars ghost said:


> Perhaps it happened to Glazunov when he conducted the premier of Rachmaninov's 1st Symphony - he was allegedly shitfaced but it's unclear as to whether the disfavour was earned by the conducting or the music.


If you have heard the symphony, it is clear to me that it cannot have been because of the music.


----------



## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I agree - I wasn't basing my post on my OWN opinion of the work, but the audience reaction (whatever caused it) was nevertheless negative.


----------



## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

elgars ghost said:


> Perhaps it happened to Glazunov when he conducted the premier of Rachmaninov's 1st Symphony - he was allegedly shitfaced but it's unclear as to whether the disfavour was earned by the conducting or the music.


Glazunov was drunk at the time.


----------



## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

A concert that I missed because I wasn't born yet: _Four Organs_ by Steve Riech performed at Carnegie Hall 1972. Lots of booing happening there. Caused about as much of a riot as _Le Sacre du Printemps_ at its premiere.

I _have_ heard a live broadcast a few years ago of Verdi's _Macbeth_ (I think from Vienna???) where just about every chance the audience had they would boo. It didn't cause a real riot or anything though and I don't think it was _really_ the conductor's fault. More the designers' and the director's fault. Just glad I only got the audio side of the production rather than the visual as well!


----------



## Guest (Jun 16, 2012)

Delicious Manager said:


> I have booed a performance on a few occasions when I felt the conductor had no idea (nor any care) of what the piece was about. Audiences are far too polite now and will clap any old rubbish.


Thanks for your reply! Were the performances you booed classical? I applaud your courage. --Jacki


----------



## Guest (Jun 16, 2012)

Thanks, ghost. Is there any way to distinguish between audience response to conducting or the muscians' performance other than the final bow stuff? --Jacki


----------



## Guest (Jun 16, 2012)

So, Delicious, is it true that one has to be familiar with the both performing orchestra and musical score in order to lay blame on the conductor? Thanks for your input. I appreciate it. --Jacki


----------



## Guest (Jun 16, 2012)

Thanks, AvantGarde. You've given me some useful info. Why do you think it was more the designers'/director's fault? How would you know if it was _really_ the conductor's fault? That's what I'm trying to get. --Jacki


----------



## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

jacki said:


> So, Delicious, is it true that one has to be familiar with the both performing orchestra and musical score in order to lay blame on the conductor? Thanks for your input. I appreciate it. --Jacki


Well, a truly atrocious performance will be obvious to experienced ears whether or not one is familiar with the repertoire.

On the occasion in question, it was a performance of Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony where the conductor was obviously treating the work as a late Tchaikovsky work and understood NOTHING of the reason for the piece's existence.


----------



## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

jacki said:


> Thanks, AvantGarde. You've given me some useful info. Why do you think it was more the designers'/director's fault? How would you know if it was _really_ the conductor's fault? That's what I'm trying to get. --Jacki


The radio presenter said that the audience was mainly booing the design and direction rather than the music. It's like at the premiere of Le Sacre du Printemps: with the choreography it caused a riot, at the first concert performance the audience loved it.


----------



## pollux (Nov 11, 2011)

It happened in Madrid a decade ago. After a disastrous performance of Ravel's Bolero, the audience booed loudly. The surprising thing about it is that the performers were Lorin Maazel and the Wiener Philharmoniker! After the concert, the concertino apologized: "People think that we are like machines. But we're human and we have some bad days, too".


----------



## GraemeG (Jun 30, 2009)

It haoppens more often with singers than conductors. And often enough with stage designers, too.
I attended at performance of _Trovatore_ back at the Berlin Staatsoper in 1989 where the tenor was so roundly booed at his first appearance on stage at the end, that he refused to come out again. He should have known it was coming - even during the performance there was enough audience reaction to tell that the crowd wasn't happy with his singing. Even I, as a relative neophyte back then, twigged that he wasn't really up to scratch.

Booing is quite popular at Bayreuth. There were certainly people doing it (for reasons I couldn't quite work out) back when I attended the festival in 1992.
cheers,
GG


----------

