Showdown in Bern
In late 1983, I was in Munich for a series of performances, mostly as Don Jose in Bizet’s Carmen, but also a production of Cav & Pag where I was scheduled to sing both tenor roles. Although by 1983, many tenors were beginning to sing both roles in the opera twins – Turriddu in Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Canio in Ruggiero Leoncavallo’s I Pagliacci – I believe that I had been a trailblazer in this regard. I first sang both roles in the same evening as early as 1976. Not that it hadn’t been done before, but most of the time it was done because of an emergency created by one of the singers being forced by illness to cancel at the last moment. However, I sang both roles in the same evening at my own request, though I had to fight management tooth and nail to get the assignment.
One of the reasons theater managers were against it was that it would make them look cheap. Another version of the same excuse is that it would make it look as if the theater did not have enough money to pay two tenors. However, when I pointed out that I would sing both roles for only a fee and half instead of two fees, the theaters started coming around and, before long, I was singing both roles as often as I was singing only one.
One Friday afternoon, my agent called me at my hotel in Munich. In those days, when I was in Munich, I always stayed at the Hotel am Markt, near the famous Victualien Markt, and only a ten minute walk to the theater. He told me that Placido Domingo had canceled a performace of Cav & Pag in Bern, Switzerland scheduled for the next day, and because I had the reputation of singing both roles, could I just pop down there and sing in his place. Unfortunately, I was scheduled to sing Don Jose that same evening in Munich.
My agent said that it was important for my career to do this. He also said it paid double my usual fee, which, I think, was his real motivation. Mine, also. He said if I could get the Munich theater to agree, he had a singer who could jump in for me as Don Jose. Another 10 percent for him. I told him I would try.
As I was free for the day, rather than call on the phone, I walked over to the theater and dropped in on Peter Falk, the Generalmusikdirector. He was not the conductor for the Carmen, but as GMD he made decisions as to casting. I knew that if I could convince him to back my plan, I would be able to make the switch.
I told him my agent’s plan and he agreed as long as a singer he knew was available to sing the Jose instead of the singer proposed by my agent. He also wrangled out of me a new commitment to sing more performances of the First Armoured Man in Mozart’s The Magic Flute. This was a role I did not particularly enjoy, even though it was only a small character appearing near the end of the opera. I sang it as a favor to Kurt Pscherer, Intendant of the theater, because it required a heldentenor. I did take a full fee for the role even though I didn’t enjoy singing it.
That sounded fair to me, so I went back to my hotel to await the results. Half an hour later, I was freed from my commitment in Munich and called my agent to firm up the details in Bern. Now I had to scramble to brush up on my Italian.
I had just sung both roles in the Munich house where they sang an old German translation of the Italian. That translation often gave me difficulties as I sang a new translation, one which I had sung the premiere of only two years earlier. When I ran into the older translation, which was often, I usually had text problems. It was really out of date and not very good, and I had to modify the version I sang in order to match up with the other singers. I remember Giesela Ehrensperger, in the Munich house, used to dread singing Nedda with me as Canio, because she was so dependent on word cues instead of music cues. Something very few singers are. Most, as myself, could care less what words the other singers sing as they pay attention only to the music cues. But Giesela was, well, Giesela. But Bern preseted the two opera in Italian.
Bern scheduled a 10 am rehearsal for the next day, so I had the rest of the day to brush up the Italian version of the two roles. It had been at least six months since I had sung either role in Italian. But I had time. It was only a two hour drive to Bern.
As was usual in most European opera houses, the rest of the cast does not show up when a guest needs to be brought up to speed on the production. Bern was not any different. I showed up at the 10 am rehearsal where the assistant director, who was going to show me the blocking, was waiting for me. An accompanist, in case I wanted to sing at all, a costume person to measure me for the costumes and a makeup person to measure me for the wigs, were also present. The conductor did not bother to show up. Altogether, we spent about an hour and a half with the blocking and I then went to meet Maggie at the train station. We went to lunch.
I went back to the hotel to take a nap while she went shopping and returned to the theater at 5:30 to meet with the conductor, try on costumes and warm up for the performance. The performance that evening was fairly routine. I remembered most of the blocking, sang well and received generous applause, including some bravos. If the audience was disappointed they had not seen Placido, it wasn’t apparent in the reception I received.
As well as the evening went, though, I never again sang in Bern.
