An opera performance was stopped for a pretty disturbing reason and we’re still in shock
Next time you go to the opera, you may want to examine your seat before you sit down — at least if you were in the orchestra pit at New York’s Metropolitan Opera on October 29th. An opera-goer allegedly sprinkled human ashes into the pit during intermission.
“Members of the orchestra … noticed an individual in a suit who approached the orchestra pit, reached into a bag, removed a powdery substance, sprinkled that into the orchestra pit, moved further down, reached into the bag again, sprinkled more of this substance into the orchestra pit,” said John Miller, the New York Police Department’s deputy commissioner in charge of intelligence and counterterrorism, reported the New York Daily News.
The man has been identified as Roger Kaiser, 52, from Dallas, Texas, according to the New York Post. After the incident, he left the opera house.
“Guillaume Tell,” Rossini’s opera about folk hero William Tell — you’d probably recognize the overture from the TV show The Lone Ranger — was then stopped and the Met was evacuated for a “technical issue,” reported Philly.com. The evening performance, “L’Italiana in Algeri,” was also cancelled.
We are 15 min into "set delay" following a 40-min intermission to hear the final act of #GuillaumeTell aaand it's cancelled...
— Sasha (@sasherka) October 29, 2016
The orchestra pit was empty at the time of the incident, save for one musician who saw it. And some worried about the instruments they’d left behind.
As are all of our instruments!
— METOrchMusicians (@METOrchestra) October 29, 2016
Members of the NYPD’s counterterrorism team came to the opera house to investigate the powder, and the Health Department will, too.
However, several witnesses told police that the man had told them about his plan to sprinkle the ashes.
Authorities tracked Kaiser down and he told them that he came to the performance to “sprinkle the ashes of his friend and mentor’’ who “loved the opera,’’ reported the New York Post.
“I don’t think he had any reason to believe what he did was wrong,” said Miller.
Although some places do permit the scattering of ashes — for instance, Wrigley Field in Chicago used to allow it — oftentimes, permission has to be granted first.
“In my eleven years as manager this is a first,” said Peter Gelb, general manager of the Met, reported the New York Daily News. “We appreciate opera lovers coming to the Met,” he said, according to Philly.com. “We hope that they will not bring their ashes with them.”
We hear that.
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