An audience member in the front row of a performance by violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, performing with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, was recording Mutter on her phone. With the phone such a few feet from her face, Mutter stopped the performance and asked the woman to stop.
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This really frustrates me. First of all, it frustrates me that this woman even had her phone out recording the soloist. But does she stop there? Oh no. When the soloist herself stops the entire performance to ask this woman to stop recording, this woman has the absolute AUDACITY to start trying to have a conversation with the soloist! If I was ever the reason for an entire performance to be stopped, I would be absolutely mortified. I would be panicked and profusely apologizing to those around me on top of kicking myself for being the reason the performance stopped. This goes back to the article a couple weeks back about phone usage during movies and other performances. It is not challenging at all to go without using your phone for a couple hours, so why is this so hard to do? The woman in this article, though, takes it twelve steps farther. I understand she may have wanted to immortalize the moment in video, but there’s a time and a place. Recordings and photos and videos never quite do justice for the experience of a live performance, there is something about being at the performance that just cannot be replicated in one of these forms. So, why do it at all? Especially when you’re so clearly told that it is strictly prohibited?
This perplexes me about human nature. Why do we ignore the requests of others? Especially when the requests are not very demanding for others. Anne-Sophie Mutter has is explicitly in her contract that there is no recording of any kind during her performances. Each performance venue she goes to, there is a sign around the door, on the ticket and elsewhere reminding audience members to turn off their phones and enjoy the performance. While I understand the wish to record an amazing moment for later times, this wasn't an appropriate time. Not only was the women in the front row, a very visible area to the performer, but she refused to stop recording. Why??? This kind of a concert is an intimate and professional affair. This isn't a rock concert where you are in a football stadium trying to strain to see the artist on the huge stage. The whole point of this type of music and concert is to enjoy it in the moment. Be present and fully engaged in the music. Recording the concert defeats the point of having the concert in the first place. I sometimes wish that people would stop thinking that requests don't apply to them and be considerate of others for once.
This is... embarrassing. Very very embarrassing. It's one thing to have the audacity to record a live performance (when it's pretty much implied that you never should, and even written explicitly in multiple, accessible places if you just so happened to be unaware of the unspoken rule). It's another thing to engage an artist in conversation when she is in the middle of the concert, having stopped her performance to tell you to stop. This just... confuses me. Where is the shame? Where is the humiliation this woman should show when caught in a mistake? If I was in that audience, I think I would be stunned beyond belief, more than I am now.
I've never really understood this mentality. I have had to confront people multiple times during shows to ask them to stop recording, even when it is spoken before the show that it isn't allowed. To a lot of people, beyond my understanding, you telling them to stop just means to them to try and record it a little sneakier than before. In high school, my teacher used to sit in the booth with a laser pointer he called "The Laser Pointer of Shame" that he would point at people's screens when he caught them recording the performance. It was his favorite thing to do, and I think it's made me think of these sorts of things in a funny rather than irritating light. But then again, never once has anyone turned around to engage him in conversation when he has done that...
This is an interesting topic. There was a specific request that no recording be allowed. So it is rude of the patron to sit in the front row and record. More so, rude to continue recording as she was asked not to. I'm not sure if she was asked politely to stop recording or if she was asked rudely. I guess that may help to defend her hesitancy to stop. However, she should not have been doing it in the first place. Here's where it gets uncomfortable for me, though. I don't like when concert performers kick people out of their shows for reasons such as recording/taking pictures. That is what the ushers are there for! I completely understand the frustration in having someone break your rules. But, firstly, there were probably lots of patrons who she did not see taking pictures or recording her performance. So to stop mid-performance and be aggressive with one patron is a bit of a stretch. If she is trying to prevent her art from being publicized, that one big stunt probably didn't fix it. It may have been more helpful to make an announcement and call on the ushers to escort out anyone who was recording. Secondly, it's just rude. I think it's important to note that some us are so caught up in the moment at concerts that we want save the memories. Not all of us have bad intentions. I went to Rod Stewart concert at Caesars Palace as a huge fan. Based off of his music, I had my own perception of who he was. A loving and gentle man, for starters. In the middle of the show, he stopped everything to kick a man out for recording. He was not polite about it, to say the least. He was upset that the man wasn't singing and dancing along, but recording/taking pictures. (Me and many others were also further back recording.) That whole incident really skewed my views of him a bit. Don't get me wrong, I still love his music. But I don't see him in the same light as I once did. I just feel as though there is a different way to go about it all. Especially to fans who clearly love and adore you and are there to appreciate your greatness... Like i said, I completely understand the no recording rule at concerts, however...ushers, security, etc...
I am confused to say the least. I don't think that it is very uncommon for rude audience members to try and sneak video recordings of a performance regardless of how completely disrespectful it is to the artist(s) on stage. At the same time, I feel like, when those people are told by ushers or security to stop recording, they should simply stop recording. In this scenario, I'm just confused. With all of the signs everywhere saying that no video recording is allowed, why would this woman think it was a smart idea to record the performance from the front row of the audience. At that point, not only is it extremely disrespectful to the soloist, but it's also distracting. So much so that Anne-Sophie Mutter stopped her performance to ask the woman to stop recording. Being called out by a performer on stage in front a huge audience would be mortifying for most people, but instead, this woman found it perfectly appropriate to engage in conversation with the soloist! I'm interested to know what exactly this woman found so important to discuss in the middle of a performance, or why she thought it was ok to disrupt the professional musicians in front of her as well as the audience members who were simply trying to enjoy the performance.
Like other comments noted, it is understandable you wanted to capture the moment, but the disrespect you are giving the soloist and the other musicians is like, kind of shocking? How disrespectful and distracting do you have to be for the soloist to literally stop playing in the middle of a piece and directly tell you to stop? That is absolutely mortifying in my opinion. I know it is amazing and a once in a lifetime chance to be in the presence of your favorite musician and such incredible skill, but you want it to yourself so bad you disrupt the moment for everybody else? I can only imagine how frustrated Anne-Sophie Mutter and the Cincinnati Symphony must have felt, especially after she got called out and continued to make the situation worse. At the same time it is so disrespectful and surprising the woman took it so far, it is almost comedic. It is kind of hard to believe she really did that.
I hate having to witness this sort of thing. And, as a lighting supervisor for a touring production, I would occasionally be obligated to either sic ushers on people I saw recording or go deal with it personally. I understand the desire to protect copyrighted material, to contain intellectual property, and to control media presence. I also understand how annoying can be for fellow audience members and how distracting (or even dangerous) it can be for performers. All that said, I am not sure why people get so bent out of shape about it. Just like with any phone use during performances, most people will follow the rules and some people will not. Is the problem that people tend to think, “if it is okay for that person, it should be okay for me?” Making a show of cracking down on recording performances? Really, though, is it just because of the type of performance--and the type of audience such a performance draws? There are plenty of shows out there where no one cares if anyone is recording.
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