UK
Performer unfurls Palestine flag during Royal Opera House curtain call
Cast member of Il trovatore unveiled the Palestinian flag during the final bow on Saturday night
July 20, 2025 09:51
Cast member of Il trovatore unveiled the Palestinian flag during the final bow on Saturday night
July 20, 2025 09:51A cast member in a production at the Royal Opera House unfurled a Palestinian flag during the show’s curtain call on Saturday.
One of the background performers in the London theatre’s production of Il trovatore displayed the flag as fellow cast members took their bows after the Saturday evening performance, holding the flag up for the entirety of the curtain call despite a production team member’s attempt to remove it.
An audience member told the Telegraph that the flag was unfurled during the encore, after which “someone from the opera house/company then came on stage from the wings to try to remove the flag from the cast member who wrestled it back and refused to give it up.”
A spokesperson for the Royal Ballet and Opera said: “The display of the flag was an unauthorised action by the artist. It was not approved by the Royal Ballet and Opera and is a wholly inappropriate act."
Il trovatore, an opera of “superstition and obsession” in four acts, has been adapted for the Royal Opera House by theatre director Adele Thomas. The incident on Saturday took place during the final staging of the production, which was scheduled to run from 8-19 July.
Dov Forman, a Holocaust educator on social media and the great-grandson of Lily Ebert, wrote on X: “The Royal Opera House gets £23 million a year from the taxpayer. If they want to give a platform to political stunts, fine - but can we have our money back? These useless idiots disrupt daily life to back a cause they barely understand, handing propaganda wins to terrorists."
The Royal Opera House gets £23 million a year from the taxpayer.
— Dov Forman (@DovForman) July 20, 2025
If they want to give a platform to political stunts, fine - but can we have our money back?
These useless idiots disrupt daily life to back a cause they barely understand, handing propaganda wins to terrorists. https://t.co/n779kguRNT
One member of the audience wrote on X after the performance: “A chorus member held up a Palestine flag throughout the curtain call, & responded aggressively when a stage manager came on and tried to take it off him. The audience reaction did not seem positive.”
She added: “It's not clear what this achieved other than discourtesy to the audience, the rest of the cast and the crew. But I don't imagine the person concerned will see it that way.”
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