History just keeps on repeating itself…

DÉJÀ VU

On 20 July tenor Atalla Ayan, singing Rodolfo in La bohème at the Royal Opera House, developed vocal problems during Act II. Fortunately for him, Ekaterina Siurina, playing

Mimì, happened to have her husband, tenor Charles Castronovo (left), in the audience; he saved the evening by singing the role from the wings while Ayan mimed on stage. The audience warmly applauded when Castronovo, in a denim jacket, appeared to take his bow. He was celebrated by the press as a hero, too, though in rescuing a performance at the very last minute he has some notable predecessors…

Arguably even more heroic was baritone Ian Vayne, who in

2004 came to see Bizet’s Carmen in Linz. The singer playing Escamillo suffered a heart attack, and Vayne had 15 minutes to learn the choreography for the knife fight before taking the stage in his place. In 1974, Thomas Allen collapsed during a Proms performance of Orff’s Carmina Burana; baritone Patrick Mccarthy volunteered to leave his seat and sing the remaining solos in a borrowed dinner jacket. Sometimes it is a case of last-minute nerves. Just before the 1917 premiere of Poulenc’s Rapsodie nègre the baritone soloist, as the composer recalled, ‘threw in the towel, saying it was too stupid and he didn’t want to be taken for a fool.’ Poulenc, no singer himself, took over. And Prokofiev, who normally premiered his piano works, asked Sviatoslav Richter to play his fiendish Seventh Sonata just four days before its 1943 premiere. Richter, famously, triumphed.