The tenor leaves the stage due to too much smoke
It happened at the “Carlo Felice” Theater in Genoa: the opera singer Marcelo Álvarez, famous all over the world, left the premiere of “Manon Lescaut”
Tenor Marcelo Álvarez left the stage at the premiere of “Manon Lescaut” due to too much smoke from the train of the scenography, The opera singer, famous all over the world, stopped right in the middle of the opera, he left and has been replaced.
It happened on Friday evening at the “Carlo Felice” Theater in Genoa. After only a quarter of an hour, the Argentine artist froze, turned to the public, and said:
“Too much smoke, I can’t sing like that, sorry!”.
He left the scene, leaving his colleague Maria José Siri alone in the role of Manon, and the curtain fell. There was encouragement from the audience to persuade Marcelo Álvarez to continue but the attempts were in vain. Half an hour later the show resumed from the beginning with a new tenor in the role of Des Grieux, Riccardo Massi, a bit tense at first but immediately applauded by the audience.
In fact, the famous director Davide Livermore has given life to an original reinterpretation of the work by staging a train in place of the horse-drawn carriage designed by Giacomo Puccini.
The Ansa news agency confirmed that there was some smoke in the theater but also that none of the performers suffered from it. The superintendent of the “Carlo Felice” of Genoa Claudio Orazi, as reported by the media, said:
“The tenor’s défaillance occurred at the beginning of the show, well before the limited scenic effects that had been widely tested, all the artists were fully aware of the very modest size of the smoke. And nothing had been opposed. The behavior of a tenor of international experience is astonishing who could have simply declared with sincerity that he did not feel well and take his leave of the scene with dignity ”.
According to insiders, then the singer would have slipped away due to a poor form: to some spectators, the voice had seemed in difficulty from the first aria “Among you beautiful blondes and brunettes”.
“Things that can happen, it is not the first time that has happened and it will not be the last, there is nothing wrong with even one of the most beautiful voices in the world”, adds Orazi.
Marcelo Álvarez’s next performance is scheduled for April 1, a date that in Italy is known as the day dedicated to jokes and the so-called “April Fools”.
Update. The tenor defended himself by saying that he reacted this way for health reasons and that he always has a medical certificate with him. There are other details in this story of mine
