Lawyer found guilty of a fight at the opera
Royal fashion designer punched in dispute over empty seat as curtain went up at Royal Opera House
BAD behaviour at the opera usually extends no further than whispering a little too loudly or failing to turn off one’s mobile phone.
But a night at the Royal Opera House provided more drama in the stalls than on the stage, after one patron repeatedly punched another in a disagreement over a front-row seat.
Matthew Feargrieve, a corporate and investment funds lawyer, attacked Ulrich Engler with “a constant flow of blows” during a performance of Wagner’s Ring Cycle, a court heard.
He was furious that Mr Engler, a fashion designer to the aristocracy with a client list that includes the Countess of Wessex, had moved into an empty seat on row A as the lights dimmed. The prosecution said Feargrieve considered it “poor form” for Mr Ulrich to sit in a seat he had not booked.
The seat was next to Feargrieve and his partner, Catherine Chandler, and occupied by her coat. When Ms Chandler refused to remove the coat, Mr Engler moved it for her.
Feargrieve responded 10 minutes into the performance by punching Mr Engler in front of shocked patrons.
One witness, Elaine Mcmaster, said: “People don’t behave like that at the local cinema, never mind the local opera house.”
Top-price tickets for the four-part production cost £1,200.
Feargrieve, 43, denied the attack, claiming: “I was at the opera. I wasn’t a yob in a football stand.” He claimed that he had been trying to protect his partner and had not thrown a punch, instead suffering a dislocated shoulder when Mr Ulrich shoved Ms Chandler into him.
But yesterday he was found guilty of common assault at the City of London magistrates’ court. District Judge John Zani said: “This is not a case of ‘one man’s punch is another man’s shove’. I accept the evidence from the prosecution witnesses when they say you did punch Mr Engler at least once, maybe twice or three times.” On the night of Oct 7 last year, Mr Ulrich was sitting in row B but decided to climb into row A for a better view.
“I saw a coat on the seat and I asked the woman if she would mind me sitting next to her. She said yes, she would mind. I asked her if she had paid for the empty seat and she said she had not,” said Mr Engler, who claimed he placed the coat on Ms Chandler’s lap, before climbing into the seat and apologising. Ms Chandler claimed that her coat was thrown to the floor.
Mr Engler continued: “By then, the conductor was up and the music started and I received blows to my left shoulder. I had never seen someone looking with so much anger and terror at me. He was up, leaning over the woman, hitting me.
“While Mr Feargrieve was hitting me, he said, ‘How dare you talk to my wife like this’... the only three things I said to this woman were, ‘Would you mind if I sat next to you again?’, ‘Have you paid for the seat?’ and that I was sorry.”
Mr Engler was arrested over the altercation and initially banned from the opera house. Friends of the designer attended the fourth Ring Cycle performance and handed out flyers appealing for witnesses.
Feargrieve, of Barnes, south-west London, was later charged.
He was bailed, ahead of sentencing, until Jan 22. The lawyer said the effect of the case “has been catastrophic on my career and my reputation”.
The Royal Opera House declined to comment on the case but a spokesman said: “Ticket buyers must sit in the seats they have purchased.”