Heckler banned from Royal Opera House for shouting at 12-year-old child star
A man has been banned from the Royal Opera House after he heckled a 12-year-old performer.
Malakai M Bayoh was singing his lines at the opening night of Handel's 1735 opera, Alcina, on Tuesday (8 November) when the man shouted 'rubbish!' and booed him.
Other audience members shushed the heckler, who eventually left, before loudly applauding Bayoh — who has received glowing reviews of his performance from just about everyone except the heckler in question.
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Josh Spero, who was in the audience, tweeted: "The nastiest thing happened @RoyalOperaHouse tonight during Alcina: a ~12yo boy was sweetly singing his lines when a man in the audience yelled 'rubbish!' and booed him.
"Who would do that to a child? Once the boy was done, the audience responded with wild applause and cheering."
The Royal Opera House responded swiftly, stating that the inexplicably rude heckler would not be allowed to return for another performance at the venue.
In a statement, the ROH said: "We would like to congratulate Malakai M Bayoh for his stellar performance as Oberto in our first night of Alcina.
"Malakai is astonishingly talented – bringing great acting and beautiful singing to the role – a huge accomplishment for such a young singer.
"Unfortunately, the opening night of Alcina featured an audience member who disrupted the show and Malakia's excellent performance.
"We are appalled that a member of the audience behaved in this way and our support is with Malakia and the cast and creative team of Alcina.
"Steps have been taken to ensure the audience member in question does not return to the Royal Opera House."
Hopefully Bayoh — who trained at the Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School — can take comfort from the glowing praise he has received from people who actually know what they're talking about.
In a review for The Guardian, Martin Kettle wrote: "Jones's dramatically poignant choice of a child alto (here a reedy Malakhai Bayoh) to sing the lost boy Oberto caused barracking from one single person that was quickly - and rightly - drowned in cheers from everyone else."
While Nicholas Kenyon wrote for The Telegraph: "The evil spirit of Handel's enchantress Alcina evidently infected one audience member at Tuesday's premiere of this new production.
"The young Malakai M Bayoh, making his debut in the role of the boy Oberto, was shamefully heckled in the middle of an aria that he was singing skilfully and exuberantly."
Jake Massey