# Was there ever an opera star who had to use music onstage in a production?



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

My sister got a lot of work because she was a fast study. Did a singer ever take ill and the only way they could replace them was with a singer with music? We had a singer sing from the side with a broken foot while his understudy performed Siegfried , very well.


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

I did just that for an operetta once. Our leading man had a sudden drop in blood pressure and had to be carted off to the hospital by ambulance 30 minutes before a performance.

One of our ladies "Stood in" for him on book (for dialogue), and when the singing came up, I sang from the piano (while playing) offstage down right. She didn't attempt to "mime" the lyrics, but continued acting with her body as appropriate.

As our audience are mostly seniors (50+), many didn't really notice that the voice wasn't come from her, but from stage right.


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## REP (Dec 8, 2011)

I've never heard of it happening, but you never know. Usually the issue is the staging, not the music, and that's why singers sometimes perform from the wings while someone else acts the part onstage.


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## ewilkros (8 mo ago)

I think I've read of a singer taking on a role at the last minute and having to have bits of the text taped to the back of every prop or bit of scenery on stage--probably more than one example--but I can't remember specifics.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Seattleoperafan said:


> My sister got a lot of work because she was a fast study. Did a singer ever take ill and the only way they could replace them was with a singer with music? We had a singer sing from the side with a broken foot while his understudy performed Siegfried , very well.


Placido Domingo cancelled performances of *Le Cid *in San Francisco and they got William Lewis to sing. It was a “stylized concert performance,” semi-staged with costumes. He sang carrying a score around. He did a decent job, but he simply did not have the voice for it.


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

I watched _La finta giardiniera_ in La Scala once. Annet Fritsch who sang Arminda got a fever and couldn't walk onto the stage. She was replaced by Marie-Adeline Henry in one day. Her character changed costumes often (which they probably couldn't fit for her in time) and had many movements across the stage. So she sang in a little black dress in the corner in front of the stage (she did it gorgeously), while mis-en-scenes were made by a director's assistant in fake rococo gowns.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Don't the opera houses have a prompter?


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

Rogerx said:


> Don't the opera houses have a prompter?


It's probably a dying out profession. I think earphones could be used, but I think it would be hard for a singer to follow an orchestra and indications in the ear simultaneously. 
In Mariinsky prompters are heard sometimes, especially when new cast members are joined or a production is played after a break.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

I remember once seeing an amateur production of *Un Ballo in Maschera *when the Amelia got laryngitis and lost her voice. There was no understudy and no time to rehearse someone into the role so they hired a professional singer (Anne Edwards, who sang lead roles both at Covent Garden and the ENO) to sing it at the stage with the score, whilst the soprano originally cast in the role acted it on stage. After a while you forgot abut the singer at the side of the stage, until the end when she received tumultuous applause.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Rogerx said:


> Don't the opera houses have a prompter?


Yes, but I was referring to an artist filling in who doesn't know the melody to sing. Anyone reading this, have you ever heard a prompter during a performance?


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

I am sure that not so long ago I read on the SlippeDIsc site that there where two people who could take the role iconstantly, I am sure the director of the house has a diary with addresses . 



https://slippedisc.com


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## Andrew Kenneth (Feb 17, 2018)

Die Walküre - Wiener Staatsoper - Franz Welser-Möst (december 2nd 2007)

Juha Uusitalo (Wotan) lost his voice during act 2 and the Wiener Staatsoper had no cover for Wotan. So director Ioan Holländer called the German bass Oskar Hillebrandt who just happened to be in town; eating a pizza at the main station. Hillebrandt sang Wotan in act 3 from the side with Uusitalo miming the role on stage.
Because of the indisposition of the Wotan Orfeo only released act 1 on cd.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Yes, but I was referring to an artist filling in who doesn't know the melody to sing. Anyone reading this, have you ever heard a prompter during a performance?


In the theater, one doesn’t hear the prompter - unless he is captured by the microphone on a recorded broadcast. There are numerous examples, not least is some of the early performances on record, where one can clearly hear the man giving his cues, usually the first few words of the upcoming phrase.


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