Volume 23, Number 16 · October 14, 1976
The Paris Opéra in New York
By Robert Craft
The Marriage of Figaro
by Mozart, libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte, directed by Giorgio Strehler, designed by Ezio Frijerio, conducted by Georg Solti
Otello
by Verdi, libretto by Arrigo Boito, staged by Terry Hands, designed by Joseph Svoboda, conducted by Georg Solti
Faust
by Gounod, libretto by Barbier and Carré, staged by Jorge Lavelli, designed by Max Bignen, conducted by Michel Plasson
During the recent New York visit of the Paris Opéra, the opening night Marriage of Figaro was marked by a real-life incident more dramatic than anything that occured on stage. Just before 'Vedrò mentre in sospiro,' the Count's Act III aria, the conductor, Georg Solti, accidentally jabbed his right temple with his baton while trying to evade the glare from a light on the stand. Fortunately his eye was unharmed and the injury slight, though it bled profusely, bespattering the score and temporarily blinding Sir Georg—as sometimes happens to a boxer from a minor cut on the brow. Though failing to stanch the flow of blood with a handkerchief in his left hand, Solti kept going, and, at the end of the number, hurried to his dressing room for first aid, having had the composure to calculate the performance time of the recitative which follows and which could be sung without him. He was back in place to lead the great centerpiece Sestetto, which cannot be played without conductor, at least in the harrowing acoustics of the Metropolitan Opera House. Before his emergency exit, Solti also had had the presence of mind to give a signal to stop the descent of the curtain, which had already begun. These feats of quick thinking and action will undoubtedly be recorded in the annals of opera. No wonder that when Sir Georg emerged to conduct the final act, he seemed to receive a Purple Heart ovation in addition to his usual merely meter-breaking one.
Review, 2911 words
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