To wonder what you all think of the lawyer guy punching the designer guy at the opera?

[Madmotherintheattic]

It's in all the papers:
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/dec/16/lawyer-repeatedly-punched-royal-opera-house-seat-dispute-court

I really don't like it when people move up a row (or more) to sit in a seat they didn't pay for, and I didn't like the sound of the guy who moved putting the woman's coat in her lap (or on the floor depending on who is telling the truth) but then I read the physiotherapist fellow opera goer who said the guy climbed over the seats "quietly and neatly" and the couple had been behaving badly a few nights before (she said it in a snobby way, that people wouldn't flick their hair and talk in their local cinema, much less the Royal Opera House). AIBU to think they all sound a bunch of prats? (Don't sit in seats you haven't paid for, don't punch people even if they do that, don't be snobby)?

I suspect the ban on Engler happened because of the false allegation that he attacked the lawyer. I can't see that moving into an empty seat could sensibly justify a ban. According to this report the ban has been rescinded.

People often move seats at the ROH, admittedly usually in the breaks between acts or at the interval -- the only potential snag is that you can get corporate types showing up very late to take their seats. Latecomers won't be allowed in either till a break between acts or an interval, but it could then potentially mean you have to vacate your 'new' seat and try to roust someone out of your 'old' seat if they've also moved.

But I agree that you don't get to control the seats around you. I've never noticed excessive hairflicking to Wagner (), but there's certainly a type of irritating high-calibre poor behaviour at the ROH, like people who bring the score with them and flick busily through it throughout the performance, like it's a working rehearsal, purely so that can take issue with the tempo of some part, or who take a vocally dim view of a singer getting an ovation when 'it's nothing compared Callas/ Sutherland/Whoever in my day'.