# Biggest Flubs on Record



## Bonetan (Dec 22, 2016)

I was listening to the Mitropoulos _Un Ballo_ recording last night with Milanov, Peters, Peerce, and Merrill and there was a sequence where Merrill forgot the words. He starts mumbling incoherently before giving up on the phrase altogether lol. It reminded me of a _Walkure_ recording with Hines as Wotan where he forgets where he is and has to rejoin the orchestra later on :lol:

So it made me wonder, what are some flubs on recordings that you've noticed? Are there any famous ones or instances that are especially funny or painful to hear? If you have examples that you experienced live feel free to include those as well! And if this thread has already been done, please point me to it!!


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## annaw (May 4, 2019)

Bonetan said:


> I was listening to the Mitropoulos _Un Ballo_ recording last night with Milanov, Peters, Peerce, and Merrill and there was a sequence where Merrill forgot the words. He starts mumbling incoherently before giving up on the phrase altogether lol. *It reminded me of a Walkure recording with Hines as Wotan where he forgets where he is and has to rejoin the orchestra later on *:lol:
> 
> So it made me wonder, what are some flubs on recordings that you've noticed? Are there any famous ones or instances that are especially funny or painful to hear? If you have examples that you experienced live feel free to include those as well! And if this thread has already been done, please point me to it!!


Waait, which one is that :lol:? Kempe?


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## Bonetan (Dec 22, 2016)

annaw said:


> Waait, which one is that :lol:? Kempe?


Yes!! During Wotan's monologue :lol:


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

I'm listening to *Gould*'s recordings of *Bach Partitas*, and he "mittens" up a resolution, and quickly transforms it into a grace note.


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## annaw (May 4, 2019)

Bonetan said:


> Yes!! During Wotan's monologue :lol:


That was a great excuse to listen to the monologue - what a great bass-baritone passage. But oh my, I got confused when Hines missed it, he recovered nicely though. I always wonder how Wagnerian singers remember their text. If I recall correctly then Jess Thomas said in one of his interviews that if one just read the whole part of Siegfried (maybe in _Siegfried_?), it would be an almost hour long speech :lol:.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Busy prompters ?


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

Windgassen made hash out of much of Siegfried's forging scene at Bayreuth in 1953 (and most other years, too).


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## VitellioScarpia (Aug 27, 2017)

In the recent Tosca prima at La Scala on 07-Dec-19, Anna Netrebko repeats the phrase _Chi m'assicura?_, not just the words but also the notes, when she should have sung _Voglio avvertirlo io stessa_. She makes a funny face and Luca Salsi (the Scarpia) makes several musical mistakes to try to recover from the dramatic and musical mess while Chailly keeps the orchestra silent.

I remember one with Marton in Gioconda in a Met broadcast in the quarrel scene with Laura (Act II) in 1983. She forgets the lines _Là attesi e il tempo colsi come belva nella tana _, instead she sings _Là attesi e il tempo colsi come belva Antinori[I/] and some other wine names... Some other flubs occur in the last act.

Even Pippo Di Stefano makes mistakes a word in the Pagliacci recording with Callas when he discovers Nedda and Silvio and sings Oh svergognata, codesta lama, io vo' il *tuo* nome. Parla! when he should have said Oh svergognata, codesta lama, io vo' il *suo* nome. Parla!. I am sure that Canio at that point knew Nedda's name. Surprisingly, having been a studio recording it was not corrected.

There are others but those are the ones I remember from the top of my head._


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## Bonetan (Dec 22, 2016)

wkasimer said:


> Windgassen made hash out of much of Siegfried's forging scene at Bayreuth in 1953 (and most other years, too).


Oh man, how could I fail to mention that one?!? I'll never forget being in the car looking forward to that passage and hearing him absolutely butcher it :lol:


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## Scott in PA (Aug 13, 2016)

It has been alleged that Geraldine Farrar sang "He had a highball" where she is to sing "Si, per la vita" in the Act I Butterfly duet. But I think this is the stuff of legend. You can judge for yourself. It's at around the 22 second mark:






Caruso does in fact sound a bit woozy at times. Not his best, but still astonishing. Maybe it was a comment made during the session.


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