Itzhak Perlman and the errant cell phone

On Wednesday night, Jimmy and I went to a beautiful new theater here in Bogota to hear Itzhak Perlman play his violin like only he can do.

Before the show started, they made the now-normal house announcement to silence your cell phones. Personally, I think if you know who this guy is and have shelled out the money to see him play, then you should know to turn off your cell phone without being told.

That's what I get for thinking.

Perlman was in the middle of the first portion of the concert, playing a sonata by Mozart, when, like nails on a chalkboard, somebody's cell phone on the theater floor started ringing. It wasn't a little ring tone - it was a full-fledged song bleating out from that phone that was obviously programmed for the "outdoors" loud setting. Perlman didn't miss a beat on his violin nor did he lose any momentum, but his head snapped around in the direction of the offender and if looks could kill, the people in the area of the offender would have been toast.

I don't know who was so important that s/he didn't turn his cell phone off, but had that been me, I would have crawled out of the theater on my hands and knees and left before anyone could say anything to me.

Apparently the offender did not feel the same way.

Perlman continued on and maybe two minutes later, THE SAME CELL PHONE RANG AGAIN. The audience let out a collective gasp and everybody's heads turned from facing forward to looking off to the left to see who could be such a heel as to let this keep happening.

(I have given a lot of thought to the cell phone user. I've convinced myself that he's a heart transplant surgeon who was using cell phone code ringing for a life and death situation. Like "if it rings once, it means the heart's not a match so don't need to leave the concert, but if it rings twice, you need to bid Perlman adieu and get yourself on down to the hospital because we've got a transplant getting ready to happen." It was probably just a call to confirm the carpool schedule for Thursday morning, but I'm thinking big.)

Perlman didn't react at all this time. He finished the movements of the sonata and then he and his accompanying pianist left the stage to great applause.

When they returned to play the next sonata, Perlman made a great show of pulling out his Blackberry and pushing the off button over and over. It was totally brilliant and charming and made us feel like he'd forgiven the offender even if we hadn't.

I am still so excited that we got to see Perlman play. Aside from his obviously mastery, he brought such joy and energy to the music - he really made you feel "filled up" with his spirit and love of and appreciation for the music.

After playing for an hour and a half, he and his accompanist then played an encore of another 4 or 5 short pieces that he discussed with great knowledge and wonderful humor. Jimmy was slightly disappointed that he didn't play "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" as an encore, which would have been the ultimate nod to his sense of humor, but alas, I guess he saves that for when he's hanging out with the Charlie Daniels Band. We'll have to keep looking for that particular concert series to be announced!