From a poster on RMO:
Sorry to report that Ms DiDonato slipped over on the raked stage last
night during Act 1 of Barbiere di Siviglia at Covent Garden and broke
the tibia bone in her leg. It was opening night and the
accident happened during a recitative with Figaro (after "Una voce poco
fa"). She was rushing over to the corner of the stage and just seemed to
fall without any obvious reason, landing in a heap. She
continued to sing the recit, although noticeably much more quietly than
usual and then got up afterwards, carrying on as normal but obviously
with something not right about the way she was walking
Before Act 2 started an announcement was made that she had sprained her
ankle, was in a great deal of pain but would bravely struggle on
nonetheless. She re-appeared on crutches, hobbling around the
stage with the help of her colleagues JDF and Ferruccio Furlanetto.
Ironically, the first line she had to sing in Act 2 was the recit
claiming that she had cramp in her foot - and the entire audience
exploded into laughter, clapping and cheering for almost a minute. Her
singing was flawlessly brilliant throughout and she kept on smiling - a
real trooper. She even negotiated a very difficult scene where
Rosina goes on a furniture-trashing rampage during the temporale
- knocking over a chair, a harpsichord, a music stand and a huge
cupboard. She used her crutch to violently smash one of the
stage lights - it was very funny.
Elsewhere in the cast, JDF turned in another stunning display of
technical virtuosity and his "Cessa di piu resistere" brought the house
down - the applause went on for nearly 5 minutes and everyone was
screaming for an encore that never happened. Alessandro
Corbelli and Furlanetto were also brilliantly funny as Dr Bartolo and
Don Basilio respectively and Pietro Spagnoli was a very respectable
replacement for an indisposed Simon Keenlyside as Figaro
It was a fantastic evening - really funny and the musical standards were
truly extraordinary. When I got home I read on Joyce's blog
that her leg was actually broken and is now in a plaster cast - but she
valiantly intends to go on with the rest of the performances regardless.
Brava!
THEY ARE AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So many singers are up there sick or injured, and we never know...That is the miracle of these great artists and what they do for us!!!!
GO HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://parterre.com/2009/07/07/but-cha-are-joyce/
Category:
general
-- posted at: 10:20pm EDT
