Woman who played opera for 16 years could face 3 years in prison

The police on Tuesday arrested a woman from Štúrovo (Nitra region) who has been annoying her neighbours by playing loud opera music some 16 hours a day for almost 16 years, TASR learnt on the same day. A police investigator charged the owner of the house on Kossuthová Street in Štúrovo, named as Eva N., with the crime of dangerous persecution. According to Nitra Regional Police Directorate spokesperson Renata Čuháková, the investigator is preparing a motion to remand the woman in custody. If found guilty, the accused could face between six months and three years in prison. The woman was playing a four-minute aria from Giuseppe Verdi's opera La traviata from loudspeakers on repeat in order to take revenge on her neighbours, whose dog was barking and distracting her from her work. In June 2015 the mayor of Štúrovo issued an injunction banning harassment by playing loud music. Over the next two years and three months the 'singing house' became silent and the street was quiet again. However, Eva N. took the regulation to court and kept appealing against the decisions of both district and regional courts. Eventually, the Supreme Court in March confirmed the town's regulation, but this didn't stop the owner of the house from playing the opera music. Based on a motion of the prosecutor's office, the police eventually took action against the woman.