Assistant Director Takes Stage As Brünhilde At Bayreuth In Relief of Injured Soprano

By David Salazar

We saw Jonas Kaufmann sing for a sick Piotr Beczala while the latter mimed onstage. We saw a stage director sub in for a sick tenor even more recently.

But we’d never seen an assistant director don a wig and play Brünhilde while another singer took on the vocal challenges.

Until now.

As the famed “Götterdämmerung” at the Bayreuth Festival reached its Act one climax between the aforementioned Valkyrie and the disguised Siegfried, soprano Catherine Foster suffered an injury. For the rest of the night she was forced to walk about in crutches.

But the show had to go on and so assistant director Andreas Rosar donned the gown, put on a wig, and played the lead role while Foster sang from the right wing.

“Twisted too fast left to come out for a bow and calf went ‘pop’ so a ripped muscle – nowhere near as bad as the right leg last year though! Lots of ice and Arnica and it’ll be fine,” the soprano posted on social media.

It was the final performance of the production.

 

 

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