The international soprano Claire Rutter has been made to suffer by persistent phone users. She tells slippedisc.com:
I was rehearsing a Verdi Requiem in Liverpool Cathedral a few weeks ago. A guy started filming, a few rows from the front, and his camera had an extremely bright light shining into the soloists’ and orchestra’s eyes. At an appropriate break I went over and asked him to stop filming because the light was distracting and blinding. Begrudgingly, he stopped.
A few minutes later he started again, and this time (thankfully) the Leader left her seat to ask him to stop filming. He was very grumpy and clearly didn’t think it was a problem.
Not long afterwards, another person started filming, again a shockingly bright white light shining in everyone’s’ faces.
Due to an eye condition which makes me very sensitive to bright lights, it can set off a migraine – not good when trying to do my job!
I cope with stage lights as I learn where not to look during rehearsals, but sudden bright flashes of light are the worst.
More often than not those, like Birmingham’s Emma Stenning, who encourage the use of phones in concert have no direct experience of their deleterious impact on performers. If you want an undistracted performers, keep phones off.
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