Tenor flies out of Met’s Carmen
mainWe hear that Marcelo Alvarez is on a flight home to Italy after failing again to take the stage as Don José in Carmen.
The Argentine tenor pulled out of the first night 15 minutes before curtain-up, and repeated his non-appearance on the third night. The substitute was Rafael Davila, making his Met debut.
No reason given. He’s out of the run.
This Carmen has been particularly ill-fated.
Sophie Koch was replaced in the title role by Clémentine Margaine, so late in rehearsals that she didn’t even get a c.v. in the programme book. Cond
uctor Dan Ettinger was subbed by fellow-Israeli Asher Fisch.
We don’t know which of these switches caused Alvarez to pull out.
You assume one of these switches caused Alvarez to pull out; why? Why would a switch a few days in advance cause him to pull out 15 minutes before? Could it be just a plain, boring illness?
He had prepared a totally different opera and only found-out at the last minute.
Yeah. He was all set for Pfitzner’s Palestrina, a sure hit at the box office . . . not.