Salzburg gave tenor weekend pass to close the Paris Olympics
OperaWhen the Swiss French tenor Benjamin Bernheim sang the Hymn to Apollo at the Paris Olympics closing show he had been given a weekend leave of absence by the Salzburg Festival.
By rights he should have been singing in Tales of Hoffmann on Satursday night.
His Salzburg jump-in was Léo Vermot Desroches.
I’m a little puzzled by this post as the premiere of ‘Tales of Hoffman’ in Salzburg is not until tomorrow (13 Aug) so I’m wondering how “by rights [Benjamin Bernheim] should have been sing in [the production] on Saturday night” just gone and had to be substituted by Léo Vermot Desroches.
Probably given permission to miss the dress rehearsal….
Fauré wrote one piece for the ages, the rest, meh.
Dear me, your fact checker is asleep at the wheel. The Hoffmann has yet to open.
There would have been a Generalprobe
Ah so he didn’t miss a performance but a rehearsal.
He missed the dress rehearsal which is an open rehearsal for a full house. His absence disappointed a lot of people who travelled to Salzburg for it.
Obviously, this was done with the approval of the festival, because they, too, must understand the scale of it.
Do you really think a general rehearsal (after a pre-dress and multiple other stage rehearsals are completed) is more important than the once-in-a-life-time chance of singing for the Olympics? Also, pretty certain it’s considered a civic duty….
Personally, I was thrilled to see opera & classical music – especially at this level – represented in the closing. Beautiful, elegant rendition of Fauré.
Bernheim was the only good thing about the closing ceremony. The rest was rubbish.
I don’t care. It was absolutely spectacular and worth it.