Saturday, 9 July 2011

The understudy goes on

I had such a nice day at the Glyndebourne Opera Festival yesterday. You go in evening dress and picnic on the grounds between acts of the opera. It was sunny for part of the evening, and the sound of champagne corks popping filled the air.

When we went back for the second act, we discovered the original tenor had become ill and his understudy had to go on. That was pretty exciting. After he sang his first aria, someone shouted BRAVO and everyone began to clap to support him.

At the end of the evening, when he took his bows, he had tears in his eyes. It must be incredible to go from understudy to star in an hour.

2 comments:

Karen said...

And thank you Elizabeth for giving us a glimpse into your singing world. I found your description of being trained to sing from the diaphragm by singing whilst lying on the ground, fascinating.

brenda said...

Gorgeous photo! Would have liked to see one of you lying on the ground, demonstrating that diaphragm singin'...:):)