A wonderful performance of Rheingold at the ROH last night, I thought. BUT...does anyone have any idea who it was that ruined the interlude between scenes 1 and 2? A mobile phone went off (in the balcony, round to the right and towards the back I'd guess). It was the dreaded Nokia Grande Valse. And the idiot in question didn't deal with it, so that it continued virtually throughout the orchestral interlude. I'd like to think that the person in question will be banned from future performances or at least frisked before entering the auditorium again.
And have I just missed it, or has the ROH stopped making the usual mobile phone announcement in the auditorium a minute or so before the lights go down? I don't recall hearing it last night or at Iphigenie last week? Big mistake if so.
Finally, a chap in front of me and to the right decided to illuminate his Blackberry during the darkness of the opening bars. I tapped him firmly on the shoulder but he ignored me and continued his business. He and his 3 companions then appeared to doze through most of the show, heads on each other's shoulders.
However great the performance, I sometimes wonder these days why I spend the money, and don't just stay at home with my CDs and DVDs. 

Yes, it was infuriating although as usual the snorting and tutting of the rest of the audience was even more distracting than the phone

My other half thought perhaps the person was trying to pretend the phone wasn't theirs. I wouldn't have been in their shoes afterwards anyway.

It's my first time at the Ring and I must say notwithstanding the distractions I got a lot more out of it than I have out of the CDs and DVDs I've listened to/watched, even though some of those are arguably much better performances. Can't wait for episode 2 now.

Another depressing thread for me to avoid in future.   

Because the experience and atmosphere of a live, real performance and the sound of a real orchestra cannot be replicated at home - no hifi in the world can make it "real".  With a few exceptions, you never hear or see a mistake or a technical fluff on a recording or dvd, and you know in advance you won't either.  There is no possibility that the dvd will miraculously "gel" into one of those rare outstanding performances for which there often isn't a logical explanation...  it just happens that everything falls into place on one particular performance (even if other performances in the run have been perfectly adequate in their way).   I'll give an example...  at the now-legendary ENO JULIUS CAESAR, backstage rivalries between the divas in the cast flared in a "productive" way (in that they underlined the rivalries in the plot), and they began to sing each other offstage in performances that became nicknamed "Star Wars".  You could never hope to capture that in a studio,  and although you might get some element of it in a live sound relay, DVD is always shot multicamera, usually over several performances, and then a montage made of the best overall versions of each scene.  The result too often is an over-produced, anodyne "product" that only has tenuous relations with the feeling of the performances in question.

There's a real danger that if we don't go to live performances,  then dvds will really become the "last word" on a particular opera - because there will be more opera-houses left to stage operas.

PS Here in Russia almost all large theatres have employed signal-blocking technology so that you cannot pick-up any kind of signal in the auditorium, and phones don't ring.  Surely the ROH could do the same?

Thanks, Reiner. Eloquent and absolutely right as ever. I wasn't REALLY planning to abandon my opera-going, but it's as well to be reminded from time to time why I shouldn't.  
And you are right, too, about the signal-blocking. The technology is there (and presumably not prohibitively expensive). The ROH house rules expressly forbid use of mobile phones in the auditorium. So what are they afraid of? (Oh: civil liberties legislation I see. Really? How absurd)
bws
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Definitely.

Besides which, the theory about being contactable in an emergency is tosh.  The vast majority switch their phones off while in the auditorium anyway, so how would they know if somebody was calling them?  A signal blocker would only need to be active in the auditorium, so people could do as the considerate majority do now - check their phones in the interval (AND SWITCH THEM BACK OFF AFTERWARDS).  Most things, Rheingold not included, do have intervals.

How delightful to hear that you still enjoy the Uncivil Liberty of having a performance for which you might have paid more than 200 pounds disturbed by your neighbour's right to discuss whether they locked the back door before going out

At the other end of Europe things are somewhat different.  Ever since the Nord-Ost Theatre Siege all theatres & concert-halls in Moscow have had airport-style metal detectors and bag-inspection in their foyers.  The arrival of this gear gave the Moscow Conservatoire the chance to introduce a new system.  All mobile phones must be checked at the cloakroom.  The minority who don't have one are given an "I am phone-free" voucher by the metal-detector attendants.  Everyone else has to exchange their phone for an "I am phone-free" voucher from the cloakroom attendants.  You won't be admitted into the auditorium without a voucher.  I have only seen them do this for "big-name" concerts, admittedly (Jessye Norman, Maxim Vengerov etc) - but it can be done.  Admittedly the system could still be fiddled by the determined (for example if you had two phones, and checked only one of them), but it's proven highly efficient.  The Bolshoi Theatre (who are shut for rebuilding until 2009) are believed to be considering following suit.

At Teatr Luny (one of the capital's more avant-garde cult theatres, run by Prokhanov), audiences hear the following recorded message after the Third Bell:

"Dear Theatrelovers!  Welcome to Teatr Luny.  At our theatre you're welcome to use pagers, mobile phones, or any other communication devices during the performance - you don't need to switch them off.  However, in return, the Management accepts no responsibility for the resulting verbal or physical consequences towards you from your fellow patrons, members of the cast or crew, or the Artistic Director in person.  Please enjoy the show.  Evgeny Prokhanov.

Naturally I wasn't accusing you of huffing, ulrica - but I was trying really hard to blot out the phone and think I might managed have if it weren't for the shower of metaphorical daggers being looked in that direction

Yes, apart from a bit of coughing the audience seemed riveted. Even Mr Harpy, who slept peacefully through the pre-performance talk, managed to stay awake throughout the actual opera. I didn't even notice the stuffiness but that might be after recent training in the upper reaches of the Albert Hall.

I feel sure I've read about a technique for blocking non-999 calls from an auditorium. Blocking all incoming calls would probably be OK wouldn't it, seeing people are meant to have their phones off anyway? You often can't get a signal in those places anyway - I don't think you can from the Barbican Hall?