| |
|
| Al's Opera Stories |
|
Livestock on Stage
|
I could only remember two stories concerning animals on
stage. I think the most famous one concerned a performance
of "Cavalleria Rusticana", Mascagni's masterpiece. Shortly
after the curtain goes up, Alfio, a carter and the "villain" of
the opera comes on stage with his mule drawn cart. He starts
to sing a very baritone macho aria about being a carter at
which point, in this performance, the mule started to urinate
copiously. The urine flooded downstage into the orchestra
pit. Chaos ensued, after all the strings, in particular, did not
want their instruments baptized with mule urine.
The conductor, the great Arturo Toscanini, suspended the
performance, turned to the audience and stated "Ladies and
Gentlemen, a true critic". |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
 |
The next story involved me in a performance of Menotti's
Christmas opera "Amahl and the night visitors". I was singing
Kaspar,one of the three kings, Besides a box of jewels Kaspar
comes on stage with a parrot, usually stuffed. However in
this production one of the directors of the opera had a "very
tame" parrot which she thought it would be a nice touch for
me to take on stage. In Kaspar's patter with Amahl there’s a
section regarding the parrot "Does it bite?" asks Amahl, at
which time I hold up a bandaged finger which always gets a
laugh out of the audience. On this occasion, right on cue, the
parrot went beserk and proceeded to peck my hand viciously.
Hint to young tenors playing Kaspar, wear a falconer's glove
and avoid grey parrots. |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
 |
Scott came up with another story of a retriever, probably like
our three legged DD. This dog went on stage front center and
became mesmerized by the conductor wagging what the dog
thought was a throw toy. Finally in complete frustration the dog
started to bark. All the conductor had to do was to toss his baton
as far upstage as possible. Presumably he did not understand
retrievers. |
|
|
|
