Bryn Terfel: Pianississimo. Photograph: Myung Jung Kim/PA
Superstar baritone Bryn Terfel mimed all the way through Monday night's final Royal Opera House performance of Wagner's Rheingold, says an intriguing report from the BBC. Terfel came down with a throat infection, so his role as Wotan was sung from the orchestra pit by Sir Donald MacIntyre, who had to be summoned from a Gatwick departure lounge to sing the part. Meanwhile, Terfel went through the movements on stage. So, what with the recent hoo-ha about ballet performed to a recorded soundtrack, is this another scandal?
Apparently not. The ROH patiently explains that although MacIntyre knows the vocal role, he couldn't be expected to know the "technically difficult" stage directions for the current production. As opera singers don't normally have understudies, this was the most appropriate course of action, and the audience were told from the outset.
A wonderful quote, though, from the ROH spokesman: "The audience were quite excited when they discovered what was happening and it created an extraordinary frisson in the auditorium." Is that frisson as in splutter? The Guardian's reviewer Andrew Clements, for one, thought that Terfel's singing was one of the few good things about the production.
