Tenor sings Schubert as surgeons remove a tumour from his brain
AN opera singer performed Schubert while he was having brain surgery – to make sure his voice was saved.
Ambroz Bajec-Lapajne had been diagnosed with one of the most aggressive malignant brain tumours, Glioblastoma multiforme, so needed to have it removed.
The operation was carried out while the Slovenian tenor was awake. To ensure his cognitive functions were not affected, surgeons at the University Medical Centre Utrecht in Holland encouraged him to talk and sing while they worked on his exposed brain.
They got him to sing along to Franz Schubert’s Gute Nacht (good night) in two keys (major and minor) to see if he could still notice the difference.
Bajec-Lapajne, who sings with the Dutch National Opera, has released a video on YouTube of himself performing while lying on the operating table. He manages to maintain the performance for most of the operation, but about two minutes in he appears to lose focus.
His voice trails away mid-phrase, while he face appears to sag slightly. But after less than a minute he is able to come back into focus and continue singing. He believes surgeons were ‘rewiring’ his brain when this happened.
Bajec-Lapajne has been recovering well since the surgery, which took place in June last year. ‘I’m doing fine, continuing my professional singing career,’ he said.