Mezzo-soprano Wendy White fell from a platform eight feet above the stage during a performance of Gounod's “Faust” at the Metropolitan Opera yesterday. She was rushed to hospital. The Met have said, however, that she did not appear to be seriously injured and was in stable condition.
During Act III White was walking onto a platform from a staircase behind René Pape, who was playing Méphistophélès, when a clattering sound was heard as she disappeared from view.
Pape shouted “Curtain! Curtain!”, and the curtain fell. A hinge on a piece of plywood that connected the platform to the stairway broke, causing the platform to give way and leading to the fall.
After half and hour, the opera resumed where it had left off, with an understudy, Theodora Hanslowe, carrying on in the role.
via NYTimes.com
Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.
His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.
