What if: Opera Conductor becomes Ill during performance

[suzyq]

A friend of mine and I were talking about conducting operas and we both came up with a what if.

What if the conductor in the middle of a performance became ill - could a muscian from the orchestra be asked
to fill in.  Some members have played any given opera many, many times and some are long-time players.

Has this ever happened?

[Renfield]

Giuseppe Sinopoli, Joseph Keilberth and Felix Mottl all died while conducting an opera. Does that fit the bill?

I've also heard that Toscanini suffered some sort of mild stroke mid-concert once, but the orchestra handled it like you suggest. Not sure about an opera performance, though, with all its (figurative and literal) moving parts...

[Brian]

I was at a Bach St Matthew Passion in which the Evangelist, Jeremy Gilchrist, suddenly went blind. He whispered to the conductor mid-movement, dashed offstage, and at the next pause the conductor dashed off too. After a bit of conferral, the conductor announced, "[another tenor] has kindly offered to sing the Evangelist, which he's never done before." Then there was another long pause where the main artists were offstage and Gilchrist was taken by an ambulance, and then the conductor announced, "Unfortunately [other tenor] has looked over the score and realized it's far too difficult for him to sight-read, especially as he's never done it, and we don't want to offer anything which might disappoint you." In consequence they skipped all the remaining numbers which involve the Evangelist, reducing the final hour of the Passion to about 15 minutes of arias and choruses.

By the way, the sudden blindness turned out to be a migraine and he's okay.

[Renfield]

I can't help but think 'if only he was doing St. Paul!'

[marvinbrown]

Giuseppe Sinopoli, Joseph Keilberth and Felix Mottl all died while conducting an opera. Does that fit the bill?

  Joseph Keilberth died while conducting Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, wow I did not know that until you pointed it out to me. What a way to go, it would be very eerie had he passed away during Isolde's Transfiguration Scene.

  marvin

[TheGSMoeller]

Jean-Baptiste Lully died from gangrene because he stabbed his toe with his baton while conducting his Te Deum.

Maybe a little off subject, but interesting none the less.

[Opus106]

Here's what happens when an operatic tenor becomes ill-tempered during performance!

http://www.youtube.com/v/AxyBxbGF-Qg

[Superhorn]

   Recently, James levine  has had to withdraw from a several performances at the Met because of illness.
   Also , the Italian conductor Giuseepe Patane died  while conducting Rossini's Barbiere di Siviglia in Munich
in 1989 .  Mariss jansons had a heart attack toward the end of a concert performance of La Boheme with the Oslo
Philharmonic and had to be fitted with a pacemaker , and Leonard Slatkin had a mild heart attack recently while conducting
in the Netherlands.
   Sinopoli, who was trained a a doctor as well as a musician, once helped a musician in an orchestra who became ill  during
a concert he was conducting, and was able to diagnose his problem.
   

[Renfield]

  Joseph Keilberth died while conducting Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, wow I did not know that until you pointed it out to me. What a way to go, it would be very eerie had he passed away during Isolde's Transfiguration Scene.

  marvin

Not just that, but he died at the exact same place (in the score) where Felix Mottl had his own heart attack. And that was - as per Herbert von Karajan - Keilberth's life's dream: that is, to die like Mottl conducting T&I, at that "quiet, intense" point.

Sadly, I don't remember what that point was, but I could dig up the Osborne Karajan biography and check.


Edit: Although apparently Mottl didn't quite die then and there. Though he did have the heart attack.

[marvinbrown]

Not just that, but he died at the exact same place (in the score) where Felix Mottl had his own heart attack. And that was - as per Herbert von Karajan - Keilberth's life's dream: that is, to die like Mottl conducting T&I, at that "quiet, intense" point.

Sadly, I don't remember what that point was, but I could dig up the Osborne Karajan biography and check.


Edit: Although apparently Mottl didn't quite die then and there. Though he did have the heart attack.

  Emotionally intense moments can strain (constrict the arteries feeding blood and oxygen to the heart muscle) which causes a heart attack.  Music and especially Tristan und Isolde can have that very powerful effect on the human body.  Tristan und Isolde  is ultra emotional, erotic reaching orgasmic levels.......like I said what a way to go!


  PS: as I age I better get a stress test done to see if my heart arteries are clogging up.
 
  marvin

[suzyq]

Thanks everyone - I learned a lot from reading all your responses. 

In the events posted, could a player from the orchestra take over in an emergency - some players have been with any given opera companies
for many years.   Thanks