Classical Music Riots, Ranked

18th century

Disrupted for conservative reasons:

None recorded

Disrupted for leftist reasons:

None recorded

Audience hated the music, apolitical:

None recorded

Other:

Thomas Arne’s Artaxerxes, performed in London in 1763, over the elimination of half-price tickets

19th century

Disrupted for conservative reasons:

Daniel Auber’s La muette de Portici, performed in Brussels in 1830, because the audience left to join the Belgian Revolution (I’m tempted to say leaving to join a revolution counts as for the other side, but nothing that leads to the installation of King Leopold can be called leftist)

Disrupted for leftist reasons:

William Reeve’s Family Quarrels, performed in London in 1802, over the production’s parodic incorporation of the Kaddish prayer into the music during a scene where one of the characters disguises himself as a Jewish man

Audience hated the music, apolitical:

Gioachino’s The Barber of Seville, performed in Milan in 1816, audience preferred another Barber of Seville by a different composer

Hector Berlioz’ Benvenuto Cellini, performed in Paris in 1838, general hissing

Arrigo Boito’s Mefistofele, performed in Milan in 1868, “audience unfamiliar with Boito’s avant-garde style and unimpressed by many of the scenes…Furthermore, the work was far too long and the cast inadequate”

Other:

None recorded

20th century

Disrupted for conservative reasons:

Pratella’s Musica Futurista, performed in Rome in 1913, audience threw garbage, hated Modernism

Alban Berg’s Altenberg Lieder, performed in Vienna in 1913, audience broke out into fistfights; “audience called for both the poet and composer to be committed, despite it being public knowledge that Altenberg was already committed to an asylum at the time

Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, performed in Paris in 1913, audience rioted due to hatred of Modernism

Sergei Profokiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2, performed in St. Petersburg in 1913, recorded catcalls include “To hell with this futurist music!” and “What is he doing, making fun of us?”

Luigi Russolo’s The Awakening of a City, The Meeting of Automobiles and Aeroplanes, performed in Milan in 1914, audience rioted, but this time were met by fellow Futurist Filippo Tommaso Marinetti leading a counter-riot

George Anthell’s Ballet Mechanique, performed in Paris in 1926, outburst by Ezra Pound

Béla Bartók’s The Miraculous Mandarin, performed in Cologne in 1926, dancing too sexy

Kurt Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, performed in Leipzig in 1930, disrupted by pro-Nazi agitators

Luigi Nono’s Intolleranza 1960, performed in Venice in 1961, disrupted by neo-fascists

Disrupted for leftist reasons:

Hans Werner Henze’s Das Floß der Medusa, performed in Hamburg, 1968, students hoisted Che Guevara banners and Red and Black flags

Igor Stravinsky’s Danses concertantes, performed in Paris in 1945, disrupted by students with police whistles who considered the neoclassical style conservative and old-fashioned

Audience hated the music, apolitical:

John Adams’ Grand Pianola Music, performed in New York in 1982, moderate booing over shaky conducting

Erik Satie’s Parade, performed in Paris in 1917, audience booed Picasso’s costume design; scenario designer Jean Cocteau beaten by police during Satie’s subsequent defamation trial for repeatedly yelling “Ass” in the courtroom

Edgard Varèse’ Hyperprism, performed in New York in 1923, audience laughed throughout, minor fistfight in hallway

George Antheil’s Sonata Sauvage, performed in Paris in 1923, multiple fistfights broke out almost immediately between numerous celebrities in attendance, including Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, and previous entry Erik Satie, who continually shouted “What precision! What precision!”

Henry Cowell’s Antimony, performed in Leipzig in 1923, introduced audiences to the “tone cluster,” audience responded by screaming, stamping, hissing, climbing onto the stage, throwing program notes

Pierre Boulez’ Polyphonie X, performed in Donaueschingen in 1951, audience erupted into shouts and “animal noises” on one side, applause and cheers on the other

Edgard Varèse’ Déserts, performed in Paris in 1954, a completely “atonal, athematic, amotivic” piece sandwiched in between Mozart and Tchaikovsky, audience confused and angry

Other:

Erik Satie’s Mercure, performed in Paris in 1924, various cultural cliques showed up spoiling for a fight. Surrealists led by André Breton were hoping to win over Picasso and gain revenge on former Dadaists; demonstration ended with audience members leaping onstage and chanting “Down with the cops!”

John Cage’s Atlas Eclipticalis, performed in New York in 1964, supposedly sabotaged when the musicians refused to follow the score, audience booed

Steve Reich’s Four Organs, performed in New York in 1973, audience booed and yelled, one woman walked to the stage and began beating her head against it, yelling “Stop, stop, I confess!”

21st century

Disrupted for conservative reasons:

Steve Reich’s Piano Phase, performed in Cologne in 2016, Iranian harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani heckled for introducing the piece in English and told to “speak German”

Disrupted for leftist reasons:

None recorded

Audience hated the music, apolitical:

Verdi’s Aida, performed in Milan in 2006, cheap seats booed tenor Roberto Alagna’s opening aria until replaced by his understudy

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What conclusions can be drawn here? While the 20th century comfortably leads the pack in sheer number of incidents, we can attribute some of that to more reliable and frequent record-keeping, so let’s bear in mind there may have been a whole mess of classical music riots in the 19th century that no one bothered to write home about because they were so frequent.

1913 and 1923 are both standout years, with four recorded riots apiece, and the 1990s really did feel like the end of history, because nothing happened there at all.

Igor Stravinsky gets special honors for incurring disruptions from both the right and the left, a distinction he holds alone. Some of the apolitical incidents could plausibly be moved to the right-wing category, since it’s easy to argue that any resistance to avant-garde art is an inherently conservative reaction, but I thought it was worth distinguishing between explicitly fascist/right-wing demonstrations and garden-variety stick-in-the-muds who want to hear a tune they can hum.

And, of course, we live in a dull and benighted age, with almost no classical music riots of any kind. Do your part to correct this.

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