Opera house goes dark when singer falls sick
NewsWe hear that Hamburg State Opera’s opening production of Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffmann was cancelled at the last minute ‘due to sudden sickness of a member of the ensemble’.
From which we must assume this was either a Covid+ test or the company is economising on understudies.
once again, no fact checking from Norman Lebrecht. The production premiered weeks ago.
NL referred to the production as the Hamburger Staatsoper’s opening production of the season, not the the affected performance was its premiere. Less haste in commenting, please, especially when wide of the mark.
Wish all performers are well. Benjamin Bernheim is a French tenor I very much want to listen to in live performance.
Update:
Benjamin Bernheim (the tenor singing Hoffmann) responds to comments on his IG account from time to time, and I asked him about this.
He said it was indeed due to a positive test, but now it’s confirmed that it’s a false positive.