The Royal Opera House in London has permanently banned an audience member after the individual heckled and booed a Black child acting in Tuesday night’s performance of Handel’s Alcina, the arts venue confirmed to The Daily Beast on Wednesday.
“We can confirm that this audience member will not be able to return to the ROH in the future,” a spokesperson told The Daily Beast.
Malakai M Bayoh, a trained music student at the Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School in London, had been making his stage debut in the role of Oberta “when a man in the audience yelled ‘rubbish!’ and booed him,’” Financial Times associate art editor Josh Spero, who had been watching the production, tweeted. “Who would do that to a child? Once the boy was done, the audience responded with wild applause and cheering.”
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“[The heckler] was in the row in front of me, three seats to the left,” Paul Halsall added on Twitter. “He left before the end of the second act or I think the amphitheatre audience would have dealt very with him. He was a nasty old git.”
“He left just before the end of the second act, basically to avoid the criticism he would have received at interval, Hannah Jones said, also on Twitter. “I was sitting behind him and despite being shhh and told to stop repeatedly, he didn’t. Atrocious behaviour.”
“Honestly one of the most sickening things I’ve ever seen,” audience member Lillian Crawford tweeted. “Never clapped and cheered so loudly in my life when [Malakai] finished singing. Some people are absolutely abhorrent.”
“[Malakai] got a massive cheer after his aria in act three and at the end, Spero added. “Poor kid tho.”
“I heard [Malakai] in a rehearsal and commented to my mate (in the interval) that his ability to grasp Handelian recit was damn impressive,” Melissa Scott tweeted. “Shocking behavior in any circumstances.”
“We would like to congratulate Malakai M Bayoh for his stellar performance as Oberto in our first night of Alcina,” a spokesperson for the Royal Opera House told The Daily Beast in a statement. “Malakai is astonishingly talented—bringing great acting and beautiful singing to the role—a huge accomplishment for such a young singer. Unfortunately, the opening night of Alcina featured an audience member who disrupted the show and Malakai’s excellent performance. We are appalled that a member of the audience behaved in this way and our support is with Malakai and the cast and creative team of Alcina. Steps have been taken to ensure the audience member in question does not return to the Royal Opera House.”
The Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School has not yet responded to requests for comment.
“We are in close contact with Malakai and his family and full support is being provided,” the Royal Opera House spokesperson added to The Daily Beast.
