Toulouse stops opera after tenor is arrested for domestic abuse

The final performance of Verdi’s Ernani was cancelled in Toulouse on Tuesday after the tenor Alfred Kim was arrested on charges of beating up a young woman in his apartment hotel.

Kim was brought to court the following day. He was given an eight months suspended sentence and a fine of 8,000 Euros. He then took a flight out of France.

The Korean is due to appear in Aida in Brussels in two months’ time, followed by Turandot at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

The cancellation was announced three hours before curtain time ‘due to the unavailability of the tenor Alfred Kim.’

UPDATE: In court reports, Kim was accused of dragging a young woman by the hair and banging her head against the toilet bowl, to the point of breaking it. He claimed to have no recollection of the incident after drinking heavily. ‘I am not used to drinking,’ he said.