Thursday, August 05, 2010

Ah yes, good old Italy...

never fails to disappoint.



The February 28 concert of the well-known band, specializing in performing baroque and late Renaissance music, in the Pantheon, was coming to an end, but a woman, apparently a Pantheon keeper, got onto the stage and said the concert was over, requesting everyone to leave the building.

She said the hall should be closed at 18:00. The audience of several hundred did not believe their ears and asked the musicians to continue performing, but another Pantheon employee, a man, stopped the concert again and told everyone to leave the building to the audience's indignant cries "Disgrace!"

"I sent a letter with apologies on my behalf and on behalf of the Cultural Heritage Ministry to the Russian musicians for the impermissible behavior by some Pantheon keepers who vulgarly interrupted the concert because the visiting time was over," Bondi said in an official statement distributed Sunday.

The video of the incident was posted on RIA Novosti's Russian-language website and on YouTube. The YouTube recording shows the woman appear on the stage at the time of 5:00.

Many Italians condemned the Pantheon keepers for the incident, writing that they were "ashamed to be Italian."


Don't worry about it. As an official representative of the Outside World,

I'm authorised to tell you, we're used to it.



~

2 comments:

BillyHW said...

I don't get it. Did they not have permission to use the place?

Hilary Jane Margaret White said...

You don't get it because you've never lived in the Stupidest Country in the World.

They had permission, had in fact probably paid a large fee for the use of the building.

But it was closing time. And to an Italian, their own convenience is the paramount consideration. It was closing time and to keep the place open past that would have been inconvenient to them.

They are a nation of solipsists.