pluck
La Cieca hears that Joyce DiDonato took the proverbial “break a leg” too literally during the opening night of new production of Il barbiere di Siviglia at Covent Garden yesterday. The mezzo caught her foot in a track on the steeply-raked stage and fractured her leg during the first act. Despite the pain, she continued the performance with a cane, and won a long ovation in the second act when Rosina complained “E’ un granchio al piede!” (It wasn’t until after the performance that the singer was taken to the emergency room; she soldiered on with what she thought was a sprain.)
Yes, she wrote an entry about it in her blog Yankeediva, with photos.
Okay, no one can deny she’s earned some brownie points as a professional. Good for her!
And I hear on good reports that she sang stunningly. Quite a gal!
These are the stories that build a legend.
Yes Monty – I was lucky enough to be there and she was amazing. One of the big features of the production is that the whole set lifts up and pitches from side to side during the Act I finale – God knows how she got through it but she did – exactly the same voice and the same Rosina, just with a stick. Even when she swapped it for a hospital crutch after the interval you had no trouble suspending disbelief. JDF was also superb. The ovation for “E’ un granchio al piede!”, however, which basically amounted to laughing at the surtitles (not the first time it’s happened in that theatre), was actually pretty annoying. J di D’s blog is well worth a look.