Guillaume Tell rape scene director’s latest opera Cavalleria Rusticana / Pagliacci booed

The latest production at the Royal Opera House by Italian director Damiano Michieletto was booed last night, six months after his controversial version of William Tell was heckled for an explicit rape scene.

Some audience members in Covent Garden protested at the end of the performances of Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci last night.

One audience member said: “The production was not particularly radical but a small group had clearly got together to protest and boo at the end of the night. It is always difficult to do something new at Covent Garden and some members of the audience are still stuck in the 1950s.”

Another said the protest seemed “more about the last production than this one”.

Michieletto says he wants to bring the works up to date and not shy away from the violence inherent in the stories.

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