It’s enough to drive the head of a prestigious opera company to drink. For the English National Opera has begun a crackdown on opera lovers trying to smuggle colourless spirits into the auditorium disguised as mineral water.

Audiences turning up to the ENO’s controversial, new telling of Richard Struass’s Salome on Friday night were appalled to find their water bottles seized and the contents emptied out into the street before being allowed in.

They may have found it as puzzling as Salome itself, described by the Telegraph’s reviewer as “infuriatingly baffling as well as being mightily pretentious...[but] rather gripping in its arid, robotic way”.

One opera buff complained that such strict security might be fine for airports - where water is not allowed on to planes for fear of the liquid containing explosives - but was unnecessary for the Coliseum, the ENO’s opulent home in the centre of London.

“Watching ENO stewards making punters empty water bottles across the steps of the Coliseum, rather than allow dangerous H2O into the building. This still feels like unwelcoming craziness,” tweeted Calum Kennedy, an opera buff and contrabassoonist.

The social media message, marked for the attention of the ENO’s newly appointed chief executive Stuart Murphy, sparked a combative response. This was no security crackdown, explained Mr Murphy, 46, formerly a Sky television executive and keen user of Twitter.