A troll-like poster was recently booted from TOP, for posting a daily rant about a soprano who had cancelled some performances at the ROH, citing ill-health.  (This poster's exit was prompted by a series of disgusting "new topics" calling the soprano every name under the sun, jibes about her sex-life, and sundry boot-worthy profanity-filter-sidestepping offences).

However, it prompted a rather more serious discussion about frequency with which big-name performers are going n/a these days - and what lies behind it.  Terfel's withdrawal from the ROH RING is another high-profile instance.

The latest is Deborah Voigt, who has recently pulled from an upcoming RING cycle (although with sufficient notice for Nina Stemme to be announced as the replacement).  On Friday, Voigt succumbed to further woes, and was obliged to pull-out of her Met debut as Isolde only 15 minutes after the performance had started.  After a pause, the opera recommenced with her understudy Janice Baird taking-over (the fact that Ms Baird was on-hand and ready to take over so quickly indicates that all had not been well before curtain-up either).  This left a TRISTAN & ISOLDE in which both the main roles were understudies...  Ben Heppner had already pulled-out due to a viral infection, leaving Gary Lehman to take over the male lead.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/15/nyregion/15tristan.html?_r=3&ref=nyregion&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Next week's R3 "Live From The Met" relay is... TRISTAN & ISOLDE, and the R3 website promises that Heppner and Voigt will be performing 

Has it always been like this, or is this a symptom of the intense pressure of rehearsal... jet-setting soloists...impossible work-schedules... impossible audience expectations...  that make-up the contemporary "international" opera scenes.

I even got involved in this merry-go-round myself last week,  when a pal of mine was summoned "urgently" to take over the lead role in Carmen in a Festival producton at three days notice.  She had never done the version with sung recit, however - we sat plunking-over the recit for two hours before I took her to the airport, with a ghastly "legacy" recording of the opera (with sung recits) on her walkman.

Or is this in reality a "drama-queen" luvvy carnival of "the show must go on!" romantic dramas, in a world where the drama ON the stage is not nearly so absorbing as the one behind it?

CHICO:  "You wanna Riccardo Baroni!  Assa my man!"
GOTTLIEB: "Well, go and get into a costume! But quickly!"

Yes, the situation in which singers have to "take a punt" on what their repertoire might be in 3-5 years time is certainly another factor, isn't it?

BTW Netrebko has sung Tatiana dozens of times in Russia, so the role is far from new to her!  I am not sure how often she's done it abroad (if at all)?   She's also well sung-into IOLANTA, and my least favourite of the Rimsky-Korsakov's, TSARSKAYA NEVESTA ("BRIDE FOR THE TSAR").   In Russia she was mostly well-known as being a Mozartian soprano - a repertoire in which she really excels.  I do hope she's not shoe-horned into unsuitably heavy stuff, when she sings Mozart and Rossini so well?  I've mentioned before that Gergiev made her sing Natasha Rostova in W&P - it was a miserable performance, with Gergiev sitting on the orchestra to force them to play pianissimo throughout    Where she could be better-used would be in the big French repertoire - FAUST, CLEOPATRE ( ), MANON,  where her lyric abilities would come to the fore    And, of course, in the bel-canto roles.

Good to hear Bryn has stepped-in  

Roocroft was, I thought, spectacular in the WNO production circa 2004, but very disappointing at the ROH.  Fortunately the WNO production had a TV broadcast.

I have been considering going to the current revival of the ROH Onegin in order to hear Poplavskaya, despite the fact that I don't like the production.

Back to the very first sentence of this thread: ooooh, does that mean it's safe to go back to TOP now?

She didn't impress me hugely when I saw her in Southampton, but then I didn't particularly enjoy the production - a very constricted set, I seem to recall, which made the ball scene rather ridiculous. I rather liked Pimlott's ROH staging - Poplavskaya was good, but I wonder how she'll do as Elisabetta in Don Carlos this summer. I don't think she has a mature/big enough voice for it as yet.

I'm looking forward to that Falstaff - it was that Peter Stein production which was one of my first operatic experiences and I seem to recall that Terfel, before he hit the headlines after the Cardiff Singer competition, was singing Ford. Stalls seats at the Mayflower also quite reasonable now!

Just come back from Falstaff in Birmingham - was almost 100% fantastic I thought, and no-one was ill, hurrah.

Found Poplavskaya a bit disappointing acting-wise in Onegin, but wondered if it was partly because she was underestimating the size of the theatre - you really need big gestures there, as Gerald Finley knows (and he was worth the price of admission IMO).

Meanwhile (back on the subject of understudies) I am becoming less and less inclined to go to the Barbican Cinema next Saturday for the Met Tristan broadcast.  The cast substitutions are a contributory factor, but it's mainly to do with my disinclination to do anything on Holy Saturday evening.  The only reason I booked it in the first place was the dream team of Heppner and Voigt.

It's sold out, and I have a single ticket at Barbican membership rate - £17.50 - which I think is the cheapest it's possible to see it for in this country.

Anybody want it?  I would get all but £2 of my money back if I returned my ticket to the Barbican... but you wouldn't get it for £17.50 without being a Barbican member.

PM me before Tuesday afternoon or I'll probably return my ticket to the box office.

Posts on the very Met-centric Opera-L (at BCCLS.LISTSERV.ORG) have led me to understand that Heppner at least is out for the duration.

I've been staying away from TOP lately - it's really become a very dispiriting place - so I didn't realise that Ecudorion had been booted off.  Not sure his departure will lure me back, though.


I bet - seomtimes the replacement really can be the star of the show.  I had a ticket for a revival of Lucia at the ROH back in the 1980s when the tenor cancelled and was replaced by ... Carlo Bergonzi.     No complaints there!