I did...and Susan Graham was also replaced by Sarah Connolly, so no-one lost out...of course, I was disappointed not to see The Divine Thomas, but it's not as if Terfel and Connolly were graduate students grateful for the work, is it??!!!

Have just received an email from the Barbican to announce that there are two 'casualties' from next week's performances of 'Benvenuto Cellini' - Michele Pertusi and Giuseppe Sabbatini have withdrawn 'for personal reasons' and are replaced by Gregory Kunde (who sang the title role on John Nelson's recording on Virgin Classics) and Darren Jeffery. I wonder what those reasons may have been - both have performed and recorded with the LSO/Davis and LSO Live before (I assume that the recordings will still go ahead). Ho hum.

Actually no, MabelJane: I was contracted as an actor, and spent my time in spoken roles and mute parts, with a fair amount of spear carrying, and even occasionally doubling as a dancer (which I most definitely wasn't) thrown in. It was only for half a season, since I was offered a part with a good understudy in a West End revival of Kismet, and they were kind enough to release me. I did however return as a guest for three more productions later on, most importantly as one of the quartet of attendant generals all but permanently at the side of Dame Janet Baker in the celebrated Julius Caesar at the end of the seventies; sadly, though, I missed the revival and the film version of this due to further West End commitments.

 

I was at Covent Garden for the Walkure performance when Bryn Terfel pulled out (which caused much consternation for the Beeb who were there filming). Donald McIntrye stepped in creditably at the last moment.

Two years ago at the Edinburgh festival, Ian Bostridge pulled out of Clemenza di Tito at the last minute. Actually, that's not strictly speaking true. He was due to record the opera prior to the performance with Mackerras and the SCO. He arrived part way through the sessions (it has been suggested to me not having fully done his homework), had his Italian pronunciation criticised and stormed off in huff. Reiner Trost did a creditable last minute job (both on disc and in the concert). Actually, for me, it was an improvement as I don't much care for Bostridge, not least due to his extreme over-acting.

Ring operas seem particularly prone to casualties. When I attended Rheingold at ENO three or four years ago (either Donner or Froh), I forget which, had voice problems. The singer in question choose to remain on stage and have the substitute sing from the side - something I've always thought to be a thoroughly unsatisfactory solution.

Albeit not operatic, but there was much chopping and changing of the Belcea Quartet's programmes last year (due to Belcea's pregnancy). They had to change their Aldeburgh programme (including, rather carelessly, dropping an Ades piece). By the time of Edinburgh festival, she was not there at all, and while the concert was excellent (the remaining members were joined by Oboeist Stefan Schilli who played Britten's Six Metamorpheses, the Phantasy quartet and Mozart's Oboe quartet). The young Doric quartet picked up the second half. However, as deputy festival director James Waters had the distinction of announcing, it was the first time April programme, the programme printed for the concert itself and the actual running order had all been different.

bws

Ho!
A truly fatal casualty was the Romanian tenor Trajan Grosevescu.  At the end of a performance in Vienna in 1927 he was shot and killed off stage by his extremely jealous wife.
Regretfully, I cannot remember the name of the singer (I think Jugoslavian) whose drink in the wings was laced with bleach by a rival.  Fortunately, the singer recovered. Maybe my memory will return.

It's not apocryphal, it actually happened, at Sadler's Wells in about 1951.  I know this, because my father was in the production; as a teenager he did various small walk-on parts at the Wells (Constanze's attendant, Mephistopheles' drummer boy, that sort of thing).  He's been dining out on this particular story for years ....

The soprano concerned was Victoria Sladen, who had had a career at the Wells before moving on to Covent Garden.  The run of Tosca performances was a return to the Wells, but she managed to alienate the entire company by her grand and imperious manner.  At the last night of the run, the mattress was not replaced, but raised by a couple of feet. Thus the incredulous audience was treated to the sight of Tosca's head reappearing above the ramparts before the curtain closed ...

Gregory Kunde turns out to have an alarming resemblance to Michael Heseltine which gave Cellini's 'demonic self-belief' a new twist. Oh dear, and I've fallen in love yet again.... Isabelle Cals as Ascanio.

Were you there last night, IGI or Harpy, or are you going to the second sitting on Friday?

Whoops: to stay on topic, I can offer a performance of Die Meistersinger at Covent Garden in 1990(?). Reiner Goldberg was Walther but he only managed to get through the first Act. By the beginning of the second Act they had somehow managed to get hold of Ben Heppner who happened to be passing by presumably. Shome undershtudy.