List of classical music concerts with an unruly audience response

Composer Title Date Location Details William Reeve Family Quarrels December 18, 1802 London Part of the Jewish audience catcalled because of perceived anti-Jewish slights. The melody of one of the songs in this opera greatly resembled the sacred Jewish Kaddish prayer.^[2] Gioachino Rossini The Barber of Seville February 20, 1816 Milan Many audience members were supporters of the elder composer Giovanni Paisiello who had written a Barber of Seville of his own. They shouted, heckled, hissed, and jeered at Rossini's new version of the piece.^[3] Daniel Auber La muette de Portici August 25, 1830 Brussels Audience members at a performance in Brussels left before the end of the opera to join planned riots that were already taking place across the city, marking the beginning of the Belgian Revolution.^[4] Hector Berlioz Benvenuto Cellini September 10, 1838 Paris The audience hissed at most of the music after the first few numbers.^[5] Richard Wagner Tannhäuser March 14, 1861 Paris The audience was unruly for several reasons. Whistling and cat-calls occurred the night before, during the premiere of the "Paris version," in response to the music, like the shepherd's piping in Act I. Wagner also did not pay the claque's fee in order to prevent disruptions. The interruptions increased during the second performance, when the Jockey-Club de Paris organized a disruption in response to the opera's ballet being placed in the first act instead of the second, which was customary. The jockey members usually arrived in time for the second act in order to see the ballet, and did not take kindly to Wagner's dissent.^[6] Arrigo Boito Mefistofele March 5, 1868 Milan The audience came predisposed to drown out Boito's claqueurs and succeeded in making the music inaudible with their hisses and boos.^[7][8][9]

Composer Title Date Location Details Giacomo Puccini Madama Butterfly February 17, 1904 Milan One of the biggest flops in Italian opera history, the performance was met with jeers and boos throughout. Originally, the opera was split into only two acts, with no intermission during the overlong second act. Puccini, aiming for verismo, planted people with bird-whistles throughout the audience to accompany the Act 2 intermezzo. The already restless audience responded by making loud animal noises of their own. Puccini withdrew the opera the very next day and made several changes before re-debuting the opera three months later in Brescia to a much more favorable response.^[10] Richard Strauss Elektra March 12, 1910 London Due to Strauss's already poor reputation, when he was brought on stage, he was met with screaming and fits of discontent.^[11] Francesco Balilla Pratella Musica Futurista March 9, 1913 Rome At the second performance of the work, the audience booed and threw refuse at the orchestra, and some fighting occurred.^[12][13] Alban Berg Altenberg Lieder March 31, 1913 Vienna As part of a front in Vienna's ongoing style wars, the audience booed and catcalled, and some punches were thrown. Berg's piece was highly expressionistic, which prompted the uproar after growing tension in the crowd.^[14] The event came to be known as the Skandalkonzert and also as the Watschenkonzert due to the concert organizer allegedly slapping an audience member, which was described by Oscar Straus as "the most harmonious sound of the evening."^[15] Igor Stravinsky The Rite of Spring May 29, 1913 Paris Dueling factions tried to drown each other out during the ballet's premiere, launching generations of exaggerations of what actually happened in the hall that night.^[16][17][18] Sergei Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 2 September 5, 1913 St. Petersburg The work was met with hisses and catcalls.^[19] Luigi Russolo The Awakening of a City, The Meeting of Automobiles and Aeroplanes April 21, 1914 Milan A concert organized by the Futurists to provide the first public demonstration of their experimental "noise-making" instruments called intonarumori resulted in an expected fracas,^[20] with Futurists led by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti fighting members of the audience in the stalls.^[21] Erik Satie Parade May 18, 1917 Paris One faction of the audience booed, hissed, and was generally unruly, but they were eventually silenced by an enthusiastic ovation.^[22][23] Anton Webern Five Movements for String Quartet, Op. 5 August 8, 1922 Salzburg Hans and Rosaleen Moldenhauer called Webern's "Salzburg affair" a "riot [...] subdued only by police". Webern interrupted his summer with Schoenberg in Traunkirchen to attend the Amar Quartet's performance, praising them to Berg but leaving briefly shaken and deterred from composing. Wilhelm Grosz cried "terrible!" and laughed during the fourth movement, while Adolf Loos and Rudolf Ganz defended Webern. A London Daily Telegraph reporter wrote, "I never saw an angrier man" of Webern's taking the stage amid the fray, "as if he were going to kill". The Quartet played the work in full for an invitation-only audience the next day, and Arthur Bliss, Arthur Honegger, Francis Poulenc, and Jean Wiéner reassured Webern.^[24] Edgard Varèse Hyperprism March 4, 1923 New York The audience laughed throughout and hissed at the conclusion, which prompted Varèse to repeat the work in hopes of a more serious response.^[25] Rued Langgaard Symphony No. 6 September 26, 1923 Copenhagen Frejlif Olsen, editor of the Ekstra Bladet, reported what happened the day after: "The audience abandoned themselves to one surprise after the other; along the rows of seats tittering, hissing, the gnashing of teeth and suppressed 'goodgriefs' could be heard [...] some groaned, others spat, an elderly lady collapsed and had to be carried out, and when the piece had finally come to an end, a violent booing and hissing could be heard throughout the concert hall, offended shrieks and outbursts of laughter drowned out a half-hearted applause. Rud Langgaard failed to understand what was going on - he thought he was being called forward, he stood up there on stage and waved and bowed with a bouquet of flowers in one hand."^[26][27] George Antheil Sonata Sauvage October 4, 1923 Paris Very raucous physical altercations and verbal fights broke out within three minutes of Antheil playing, with many distinguished guests in attendance. Artist Man Ray reportedly punched a man in the nose, Marcel Duchamp began hurling obscenities at a fellow audience member, and Erik Satie was heard shouting, "What precision! What precision!"^[28] Henry Cowell Antinomy October 15, 1923 Leipzig The audience threw program notes at Cowell and clambered onto the stage, leading to a large physical altercation and the arrest of over 20 audience members.^[29] Henry Cowell Five Encores to Dynamic Motion October 31, 1923 Vienna An audience member began screaming at Cowell, "Stop! Stop!" and would not be quiet when shushed by audience members, leading to an attempt to drown one other out with continuous catcalling.^[30] Erik Satie Mercure June 15, 1924 Paris The police were called to the premiere due to unruly behavior that sprang from the Parisian cultural infighting of the time.^[31] George Antheil Ballet Mécanique June 19, 1926 Paris The premiere performance received a large ovation despite some unruly behavior in the audience, including an outburst by Ezra Pound, but there were some fistfights in the street after the concert.^[32] Alban Berg Wozzeck November 11, 1926 Prague Musicologist Brian S. Locke called the "Wozzeck Affair" the "most important event at the Czechs' National Theater in the interwar period". Planned disruptions began in the sleeping soldiers' chorus (act 2) as Otakar Ostrčil conducted the Tuesday performance, favored by wealthy and upper-middle-class subscribers. Police cleared the audience, including Berg, his wife Helene, and their friend Alma Mahler. Amid anti-German sentiment and rising Czech fascism, politically polarized critics debated the opera before authorities forbade more performances.^[33] Béla Bartók The Miraculous Mandarin November 27, 1926 Cologne The plot caused a commotion in the audience, which began leaving during the performance.^[34] Anton Webern String Trio, Op. 20 September 13, 1928 Siena The Kolisch Quartet's 1928 ISCM festival performance at the Palazzo Chigi-Saracini was disrupted by fist fights and a call for Benito Mussolini's intervention when the second movement began.^[35] Kurt Weill Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny March 9, 1930 Leipzig Organized bands of right-wing agitators planted themselves in the audience and created a large commotion, directed towards the opera's supposed anti-German sentiment. It was subsequently banned by the Nazis in 1933.^[36][37] Igor Stravinsky Danses concertantes February 27, 1945 Paris A group of students from Olivier Messiaen's class, including Serge Nigg and Pierre Boulez, protested noisily with police whistles against the neoclassical style of the compositions.^[38] Igor Stravinsky Four Norwegian Moods March 15, 1945 Paris Same as above. Pierre Boulez Polyphonie X October 6, 1951 Donaueschingen Musicologist Antoine Goléa, who attended the concert, recalled: "Those who experienced this Donaueschingen première will remember the scandal as long as they live. Shouts, caterwauling, and other animal noises were unleashed from one half of the hall in response to applause, foot-stamping and enthusiastic bravos from the other".^[39] Boulez was unable to attend, but, after hearing a tape of the concert, decided to withdraw the piece.^[39] John Cage 4'33" 1952 New York During the premiere of this piece, the audience grew agitated due to the complete silence. It consisted of three movements, and during the third movement audience members began to walk out of the performance.^[40] Edgard Varèse Déserts December 2, 1954 Paris The audience booed and jeered the piece.^[41] Richard Wagner Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg 1956 Bayreuth Festival Bayreuth A new interpretation of Die Meistersinger by Wagner's grandson Wieland Wagner removed elements associated with German nationalism and introduced a minimalist, modernist staging. Particularly controversial was the removal of scenery depicting Nuremberg – both the setting of the play and a city central to Nazi propaganda. The production was booed by the audience throughout the summer of 1956, beginning a tradition of booing at future Bayreuth Festivals.^[42] Luigi Nono Intolleranza 1960 April 13, 1961 Venice The opera's premiere was disrupted by shouts from a neo-fascist faction in the audience.^[43][44] John Cage Atlas Eclipticalis February 6, 1964 New York Part of an avant-garde season of music featuring the New York Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Bernstein, most performances had received lukewarm responses. This one, with Cage as performer, was met with boos and hisses. Allegedly, the orchestra failed to take the music seriously, and in so doing, effectively sabotaged it. The event was recorded, and released as part of a Bernstein retrospective set.^[45][46] Hans Werner Henze Das Floß der Medusa December 9, 1968 Hamburg Students hung a Che Guevara banner, the Red, and Black flags, and after the chorus responded in protest, the police began making arrests, prompting Henze to cancel the concert.^[47] Steve Reich Four Organs January 18, 1973 New York At a Carnegie Hall performance of the work, the conservative audience tried yelling and sarcastically applauding to hasten the end of the piece, which received both boos and cheers during the ovation.^[48] One of the performers, Michael Tilson Thomas, recalls: "One woman walked down the aisle and repeatedly banged her head on the front of the stage, wailing 'Stop, stop, I confess.'"^[49][50] Richard Wagner Tristan und Isolde 1981 Tel Aviv, Israel Disturbances broke out within the Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv as Conductor Zubin Mehta led the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra with music by Richard Wagner. By tradition, Wager's work had been banned by the Israeli orchestra since 1939 because of his anti-Semitic beliefs and the Nazi glorification of his music. Arguments broke out during and after the concert, with security guards wrestling protesters. Three musicians left their desks by prearrangement with the conductor.^[51] John Adams Grand Pianola Music 1982 New York Premiere of the piece at the Horizons Festival, held at Lincoln Center, New York. Audience was booing and cheering.^[52] Harrison Birtwistle Panic 1995 London BBC received thousands of complaints after its broadcast to millions during the Last Night of the Proms.^[53]