Royal Opera House cast member unfurls Palestinian flag on stage
The incident at the publically funded venue, which took place at Saturday's curtain call for Il Trovatore, was described as 'spontaneous and unauthorised' by the venue
A cast member at the Royal Opera House used the curtain call at Saturday’s performance to unfurl a Palestinian flag on stage, fighting off an attempt from an individual offstage to relieve him of the offending object.
The incident, which took place after the venue’s performance of Il Trovatore, saw Daniel Perry, a self-described “queer dance artist” who attended Hertfordshire’s £16,000-per-term Tring Park School for the Performing Arts, hold a Palestinian flag while the audience cheered the performers. Video footage by audience members showed an attempt by someone backstage to try and grab the flag away, but Perry, identified by media outlets including the Telegraph and Daily Mail, refused to let go, after which no further attempt appeared to have been made to remove the flag.
One attendee at the performance, posting on social media, said “A chorus member held up a Palestine flag throughout the curtain call, & responded aggressively when a stage manager came on and tried to take it off him.
The audience reaction did not seem positive… people mostly just got on with the applause. But the aggressive response when staff tried to remove it made it clear that the cast member was determined to make his opinions known, which created tension and some audible anger.
“A man behind me shouted support for the staff member trying to remove it. Someone else then seemed to cheer the cast member for holding on to it. It wasn’t clear the principal cast, standing in front of him, even knew what was going on. Pointless, with a side order of divisive.”
The Royal Ballet and Opera told The Telegraph: “The display of the flag was spontaneous and unauthorised action by the artist. It was not approved by the Royal Ballet and Opera and is not in line with our commitment to political impartiality.”
The Royal Opera House receives more than £22 million of public money annually.
Jewish News approached Royal Ballet and Opera for further information – including whether the individual in question was a regular cast member or an extra, and a confirmation that they would no longer be featuring in future performances. Royal Ballet and Opera told Jewish News they would not be commenting beyond their original statement.
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