The dead town almost dies again … of Covid

From the Denver Gazette:

… Opera Colorado that had the most to lose as it prepared to open “Die tote Stadt” (“The Dead City”) on Saturday … Cast in the dual roles of Marie and Marietta was powerhouse singer Sara Gartland, who was diagnosed with COVID last fall. It was only late into the rehearsal process that the vocal fatigue she was only recently experiencing was diagnosed as partial nerve paralysis of her laryngeal nerve caused by her previous COVID infection. Her role(s), said Opera Colorado’s Jennifer Colgan, comprise one of the most demanding in the opera repertoire, “which makes securing an understudy or cover difficult.” And finding an available last-minute replacement next to impossible.

But the Opera Colorado artistic team found Kara Shay Thomson, “one of the very small handful of sopranos in the world who knows the roles, let alone lives in North America and would not be delayed by visa processes,” Colgan said. “Not only was Ms. Thomson available, but she was on a plane to Denver within eight hours of receiving the phone call from Opera Colorado.”…

Read on here.