Talk about last minute replacements: Terfel saves Tosca
Well, of course, he didn’t because she stabbed him first, and then forgot to read the small print on the safe-conduct papers; but that’s another story. Meanwhile at the Met…
Is there a great bass-baritone in the house? This desperate cry was answered with a resounding yes at the Metropolitan Opera in New York on Saturday, said The Times.
The Met’s managers were tearing their hair out trying to find a late replacement for an ailing James Morris, who was due to sing Scarpia in Tosca that evening. Then someone saw Bryn Terfel quietly sitting in the audience for a matinee performance of Wozzeck. Terfel is in New York to play Wotan in the Met’s new production of Die Walküre, which opens on Friday.
A whispered message was passed to the Welshman during a scene- change. He rushed back to his apartment with a score of Tosca, brushed up on a role that he had sung earlier this season, and burst on stage as Puccini‘s malevolent sadist a few hours later.
Photo: Bryn as Baron Scarpia in Tosca, ROH June 2006 by Brian Tarr
Graham Spicer, aka ‘Gramilano’, is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. His articles have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the Danza in Italia column for Dancing Times magazine. Graham was the historical advisor on Codice Carla, the 2023 documentary on Carla Fracci.
Graham also works as a dance photographer, and his photos have appeared in many books, theatre programmes, and magazines, including Dancing Times, Dance Spirit and Ballet2000, as well as all the major Italian newspapers.
He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.
