Natalia Osipova @ ABT Options

[abatt]

I also find the pre-curtain announcements at the opera regarding a singer's illness disconcerting. However, unlike ballet,there is a tradition in opera of rude boos if a performer's singing is sub-par. (I have even seen Placido Domingo booed at the MET for conducting poorly.) I guess these announcements are designed to create sympathy in the audience to prevent such audience reactions.

[richard53dog]

I also find the pre-curtain announcements at the opera regarding a singer's illness disconcerting. However, unlike ballet,there is a tradition in opera of rude boos if a performer's singing is sub-par. (I have even seen Placido Domingo booed at the MET for conducting poorly.) I guess these announcements are designed to create sympathy in the audience to prevent such audience reactions.

Like vipa and abatt, I'm not thrilled with the pre-curtain announcements in opera. As I look at it, you are either up for the perfomance or not. I don't get a reduced ticket price because you are singing over a cold.

Unfortunately, these announcements have become traditional, I doubt they will go away. And singers seem to use them as a kind of pressure valve, often
they sing better after the announcement has been made. It's sort of perverse, "now that you know I'm sick, I can sing more like I'm well". Oh well.

Going back to Osipova, if she was a singer rather than a dancer, there might have been an announcement at her DC Corsaire. Particularly since she seemed to be feverish (and perhaps exhausted), it's a bit different than the more common dancer problem of soem kind of injury.

I'm hoping to catch her with ABT next year, but I'd rather see her as Kitri than Aurora or Juliet. I guess she's sort of tired though of the role.

[dirac]

Imagine if we heard about every performer's problems: back's a little sore, going through a divorce, upset stomach etc.

Respectfully, I think that's a bit of an exaggeration, isn't it? Highly unlikely that things would ever go that far as far as announcements are concerned. There's a middle ground between being less than 100% for a performance and having to cancel outright.

Going back to Osipova, if she was a singer rather than a dancer, there might have been an announcement at her DC Corsaire. Particularly since she seemed to be feverish (and perhaps exhausted), it's a bit different than the more common dancer problem of soem kind of injury.

The dance world tends to be much more closemouthed, which has its good and bad aspects.