From a very recent peformance of Andrea Chénier at Teatro Real.
"This is what is destroying opera. IT IS EVERYWHERE! THe Met, La Scala etc. These fake artists and especially the directors who are hiring them. Here is what happened. Just after Gerard's (Marco Vratogna) first aria, some of the people in the upper rings started yelling and booing and shouting "verguenza"("Shame!")because he seemed to be mic'd. There was a loud feedback -he would turn around and it would sound the same as if he was facing forward; some sound coming from the left and some from the right and it was reverberating. So they were pissed. Then, Fiorenza Cedolins (Maddalena) came in the first scene and she seemed to be mic'd, too. The audience didn't stop booing, and then the conductor paused the performance and the curtain came down."