November 3, 2004

Is there a singer in the house

Interesting story from CBC/Arts News: bq. Audience member replaces heart attack-stricken opera lead A man who started the evening sitting in the audience for a production of the opera Carmen, ended the night onstage receiving kudos after he replaced a stricken opera singer. bq. Baritone Ian Vayne had been watching a Monday performance of the Bizet opera at the Landestheater in the city of Linz, Austria, when one of the leads suffered a heart attack in the second act. bq. "[Vayne] jumped onstage without makeup or costume and, without having warmed up his voice, finished the opera in place of Lauri Vasar," Elisabeth Egger-Mann, a spokesperson for the Landestheater, said on Tuesday. And the upshot of this: bq. The opera company has enlisted the quick-acting Vayne to replace the recuperating Vasar in the role of Escamillo, the handsome matador who lures Carmen away from Don José. bq. Vayne, a singer who works in the German city of Mannheim, said he "never expected something like this to happen." Cool - and the other singer is "recovering nicely" according to the article. Posted by DaveH at November 3, 2004 12:40 PM