Thursday, 4:30 PM
Shoving match disrupts opening night of Boston Pops
(Evan Richman/Globe Staff)
A skirmish between two concertgoers in the second balcony stopped the performance for two minutes.
By Geoff Edgers and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff
A day after being at the center of what’s become known as "The Brawl at Symphony Hall," one of the men who says he was involved in the fight the opening night of the Boston Pops wants to press charges.
Matthew Ellinger told the Globe this afternoon that another concertgoer hit him in a balcony at Symphony Hall after he asked the man to stop talking during the performance.
"People with a temper like that aren't really safe in society," Ellinger said. "If a guy is going to lose his temper at the symphony when somebody asks him to stop talking, that's just not cool. If I were to let that go, I would be doing nobody any service."
The ruckus briefly interrupted the performance by conductor Keith Lockhart.
"It was an unfortunate incident, but thankfully this kind of behavior is truly out of the ordinary at a Boston Pops concert," according to a statement issued today by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. "The concert resumed and ended with cheers and a standing ovation."
Television video showed two men in a shoving match at about 7 p.m. that culminated when one of the men had his button-down shirt ripped open. The video showed a security guard pulling one man off of the other man.
"First, there was a scream, and Keith looked up that way but he kept going," June MacIndoe, an audience member, told WHDH-TV. "Then about a minute and a half later there was a big scream, and you could hear chairs falling over."
At that point, Lockhart stopped the music.
"He just stood there, quiet," MacIndoe said. The break in the show lasted about two minutes, she said.
Both men were ejected from the auditorium, according to a Boston police spokesman. Police did not release the men's names because neither was arrested or charged with crimes. One man was in his 20s and the other was in his 40s.
