A newlywed is suing an opera company she hired to sing at her wedding reception after claiming their “painful” performance ruined the day and even made one guest feel sick.
Virginia Routh, a lifelong opera fan, paid company Soprano Bella £2,500 for three opera singers to perform at her wedding to Alan Lynch at Chandos House in the West End in September last year. However, Ms Routh, 75, claimed the performance was “ruined” by over-amplification and that the loudness forced guests to cover their ears and even left one feeling ill.
Soprano Bella claimed their singers have all “played a lead role in either a major West End show or have performed with one of the UK’s top opera companies, making them one of the best in their field”. The company specialises in providing singers dressed as waiters who make an announcement before breaking into song…
… Routh said,
Soprano Bella’s performance can only be described as a disaster. One of my guests, who had come all the way from Germany, was so appalled that he stuck both fingers in his ears. My sister-in-law, Caroline Raphael, who is a devoted opera fan and friend of Covent Garden, left the room because the over-amplified sound made her feel physically sick. It was more than just an embarrassment, it spoilt what should have been a very happy occasion for me and all my guests.”
via Evening Standard
Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano’) about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.
His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia’ column for Dancing Times magazine.
Seriously? THIS sort of drivel doesn’t deserve even a nod in passing. Sounds like a woman who just decided not to pay the tab for people she contracted to perform. Perhaps her sister-in-law and her “German guest” should have stepped up and performed a duet!
Well Suzanne, it looks as though the courts thought otherwise: here’s today’s Guardian.
“When lifelong opera fans Virginia and Alan Lynch complained to the Guardian’s consumer champions last year about an entertainment company that had ruined their wedding reception, we suggested they go to the small claims court to get back the £2,500 they had paid for the 30-minute performance…
… She asked Guardian Money whether we thought they had reasonable grounds for a complaint. After taking our advice, this week they won £1,500 compensation plus £285 in legal costs at a hearing at Hertford county court.
Their success is a victory for consumers who are prepared to take a stand in the face of poor treatment from a company that refuses to listen.
Soprano Bella treated their complaint, and the Guardian’s subsequent inquiries, with disdain. Its owners tried to paint the Lynches as difficult customers, saying the couple wouldn’t have been happy had it sent “Pavarotti himself”. They threatened Guardian Money with legal action if we ran the story.
This week District Judge David Enyon agreed the couple had a reasonable claim. Papers submitted for the hearing described how guest Volkhardt Freitag, a music professor who had travelled from Germany, had been forced to protect his ears “by shutting them with my hands”. Another guest John Auckland, who runs an electronics company, said he went to the mixing desk to turn the sound down when he saw the effect it was having on the guests – but the sound man promptly turned it up again…
… This week Mrs Lynch said: “This was not about the money, it was about how rude they were after we complained. They said I was an impossible customer. It’s really because of that we brought the case. We couldn’t get away with letting them treat other customers like this.”…
… This week Soprano Bella was unrepentant. Katrina Murphy, co-owner of Soprano Bella, said she still felt her company had done nothing wrong. “We have performed at thousands of weddings in the past seven years, and this was the first complaint we have had. There are breaks and dialogue between each song, which would have given [Mrs Lynch] an easy opportunity to stop the act, but she didn’t.” She also sent a number of testimonials from happy customers.
The Guardian
I never realised that opera singers needed professional indemnity cover. http://t.co/QMdeAPOH