July 1998 – All Articles

DOES THE SHOW GO ON? It is the final scene of Elektra at San Francisco Opera. You are standing next to the mezzo as she “dies” in a pool of

It is said that Beverly Sills once told aspiring opera singers that if they could stand to do something else for their full-time occupation, they should. We agree. But while

We have received numerous questions about the effects of nasal surgery on the voice. Is such surgery beneficial? Does the voice change? Should nasal surgery be performed in the hopes of improving resonance?

I learned about the importance of stage safety from years of sometimes hard experiences. Around 1974, in the Met’s Romeo and Juliet, I was doing my staged “dying” as Mercutio,

“Opera almost always has more vio lence on stage than (non-musical) drama. Just about every production I work with, I run into a singer who has been injured in a

I was seriously injured on opening night doing a fight scene with an Italian whose English was very limited. There was no translator provided in rehearsals so he probably didn’t

…a colleague became ill onstage? We had a chorister die on stage, of a stroke; she just collapsed in the middle of the big opening scene in Otello, was helped

At a Met Trovatore with Price and Domingo, the lighting designer reduced the lights during “Di quella pira” except for a spotlight on Domingo. As he finished with “all’armi,” he

Dead singers don’t get jobs. Sick and injured singers don’t get much work either. Companies tend not to hire singers who have canceled performances due to a chronic illness, who

International opera star Fabio Armiliato could talk about his recent triumph at Carnegie Hall as OONY’s Polliuto, his international career, or his reputation as “The Cybertenor.” He could discuss how he uses computers for coaches, his interest in opera education, etc. But instead, he agreed to share his experience on a topic he rarely speaks about anymore—“the accident.” He said, “This time the account will be read by singers who really do need to know what happened and how to prevent it from happening again. When performers forget safety, we are all in trouble!”