Rude Woman Kept Humming And Singing Along During A Classical Music Concert, So This Gentleman Asked Her To Knock It Off
by Mila Cardozo
There are a few basic rules everyone has to follow when attending a classical concert—No humming, whistling, singing or clapping between the movements of a piece.
Unfortunately for this man, a woman directly behind him kept humming along.
So after thirty minutes, he asked her to stop.
Welp, she didn’t stop, and now he’s wondering if he should have handled the situation differently.
Let’s analyze the situation.
AITA for telling a woman to stop humming during a classical music concert?
My fiancée and I enjoy going to live classical music concerts as a special date night.
Yesterday, I spent $110 on two front-row seats for holiday music we were excited for.
That’s quite an investment and they were looking forward to the memorable experience.
Not even 15 seconds after the music started, the woman directly behind me began loudly humming with the music.
At first, I tried to ignore it, hoping she’d stop, but she just kept going.
It wasn’t subtle – it was loud.
You could see her being overly touchy with her husband as well and she was clearly drunk.
The husband at one point said something around the lines of her needing to stop as it’s not polite, but the wife laughed it off.
But I was becoming incredibly mad at this point.
He wasn’t expecting this to happen in such an elegant place and it made him very uncomfortable.
I’m not a confrontational guy, I hate confrontation!
But I was just brewing the entire time.
On the other hand, my Fiancée seemed to not have directly noticed, so I didn’t want to cause a scene or ruin her night.
But 30 minutes into the concert, I told my Fiancée I needed to say something.
I can’t hear the music and I was frustrated.
That’s when my Fiancée noticed and told me it was okay and not to make a scene.
But the woman did something impossible to ignore for anyone who enjoys classical concerts.
Maybe 5 minutes later, the same woman behind me begins singing! Straight singing!
If you’re not familiar with classical music etiquette: you don’t sing, you don’t hum, you don’t make sound, you don’t tap your feet.
This is when I turned around, directly looked at the woman and said, “Ma’am, please stop.”
The woman looked confused, asked me to repeat, and I said, “Ma’am, please stop. I’ve been listening to you the entire concert.”
She then hand wave me away out of embarrassment.
The husband didn’t even want to look at me, he looked embarrassed.
Things could have ended there, but they didn’t…
I could hear others laughing after I said that to her.
You could hear the whispers of others giggling and repeating what I said to their significant other.
But guess what?
She didn’t stop!
She tapped me on the shoulders 5 minutes later to apologize and I waved her away.
I didn’t want to accept any apology, I was frustrated, and I didn’t want to acknowledge her.
If it wasn’t for my Fiancée being able to enjoy most of the show I would have asked for a refund or for someone to ask her to leave.
Unfortunately, this made his fiancée notice the noise as well.
But I do feel bad because as my Fiancée was now more tuned to the sound, she became frustrated with the humming.
The woman was directly next to my ear, but my fiancée though next to me was just a bit further and at an angle that made it as to why she didn’t notice at first.
But she then said something to the woman asking her to be quiet.
And again, no change.
After all this, he started to wonder if he was in the wrong for asking the woman to stop humming.
Honestly when the concert ended at the hour mark, I didn’t want to look at that woman, I didn’t want to do anything but leave.
I paid $110 to listen to a woman hum in my ear for an hour.
It was a lesson in patience, but not in a good way.
Should I have escalated it to staff or handled it differently?
I genuinely am not a confrontational guy; I’ve never been in this position before.
It makes me incredibly uncomfortable, so for me to have said anything is very out of character.
AITA?
In my opinion, he could have told a staff member instead of dealing directly with her.
Let’s see if Redditors have any insight into this situation.
A reader shares their thoughts.
This commenter shares their opinion.
This person keeps it simple.
Exactly!
Someone has a different yet similar perspective.
A classical musician chimes in.
She should have been asked to stop or leave the minute she started breaking classical concert etiquette.
That’s what ushers are there for, though!
If you thought that was an interesting story, check this one out about a man who created a points system for his inheritance, and a family friend ends up getting almost all of it.
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