CURTAIN CALL OUT

Scuffle Breaks Out at Royal Opera House Curtain Call Over Palestine Flag

The theatre has admonished the performer for holding up the flag, saying that it doesn’t align with its “commitment to political impartiality.”

A scuffle broke out at the Royal Opera House after a performer tried to unveil a Palestinian flag onstage. During the final performance of the 11-day run of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Il Trovatore Saturday, a performer held up Palestinian flag in an act of protest against the war on Gaza. In videos posted online, a brief scuffle can be seen between the performer and someone backstage as they tried to snatch the flag out of the performer’s hands. The artist yanks it back and continues holding it up as the actors take their finals bows. A spokesperson for the Royal Ballet and Opera told the BBC that the protest was “completely inappropriate for a curtain call,” calling it a “spontaneous and unauthorized action by the artist.” “It was not approved by the Royal Ballet and Opera and is not in line with our commitment to political impartiality,” the spokesperson continued. This comes off the heels of multiple artists showing their support for Palestine at Glastonbury Festival in June, causing the police to launch a criminal investigation into some performers like the band Kneecap, which are based in Northern Ireland.