Never having been a theater performer, 3CM is guessing that everyone will think that the next sentence is a total crock, but here goes anyway.
One can imagine that for a stage performer, perhaps the scariest thing imaginable happening on stage (besides having a heart attack) is forgetting one's lines. The problem then follows, of course, of how to get back on track as smoothly as possible. This happened 2 Tuesdays ago in London, at this performance, part of the first-ever complete cycle of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen in one season at The Proms. The singer who had the memory lapse was this lady, who was singing Brünnhilde, the lead Valkyrie in the opera. Not a good role to lose one's place, not that any role, however large or small, is good for losing one's place in a live performance. What is ultimately touching is how she ended up finding her way back for the rest of the performance. More below the flip.....
First, for those who care (i.e. no one else besides me), some reviews of the performance, with Daniel Barenboim as conductor with the Staatskapelle Berlin (amazingly, this was the orchestra's first-ever appearances at The Proms. Not Barenboim's first, far from it, as his Proms debut was back in 1966 as a pianist):
1. Andrew Clements, The Guardian
2. Fiona Maddocks, The Observer
3. Rupert Christiansen, Telegraph
4. Jessica Duchen, The Independent
5. Barry Millington, Evening Standard
Just two of these press reviews noted that Nina Stemme had slipped, but with interestingly different takes on said slip:
(a) Millington:
"[Barenboim's] laissez-faire attitude to cueing once or twice led to uncertainty, as when Stemme made three attempts to come in on one entry. But this was a passing blemish on an outstanding performance."
(b) Maddocks:
"Nina Stemme, ardent and accomplished as Brünnhilde, even if the limited staging did not quite unleash her full dramatic potential, missed an entry – in that heat, made worse by bright stage lights, anyone would sympathise......Barenboim tried to cue her."
Obviously just listening over the internet, visually, I have no idea what really happened and who's closer to the truth regarding the nature of Barenboim's cue (if you're Maddocks) or lack/insufficiency thereof (if you're Millington). What is aurally clear from the transmission is that Stemme starts, and then slips, in Act III, after the start of the last scene (which culminates when Wotan does the "sleeping beauty" thing with the magic fire to surround Brünnhilde) at about 3:26:50 on the iPlayer transmission (which, amazingly, you can still listen to, over a week after the concert has passed - at least for now, but more about that later). FWIW, since we're on full nerd roll here, this is the passage in question:
"Weil für dich im Auge
das Eine ich hielt,
dem, im Zwange des andren
schmerzlich entzweit,
ratlos den Rücken du wandtest!
(Because my eyes are yours
I held to the one thing
on which constraints forced you,
in a painful dilemma,
summarily to turn your back.)"
She does indeed try to come in 3 times on "Weil für dich im Auge", and unfortunately misses each time. She ended up missing the first 4 lines of that passage.
But then this is where the bit comes about how Stemme got out of this pickle. Specifically, she had help from the Wotan, king of the gods and Brünnhilde's father, in this production, namely Bryn Terfel. Restoring the passage left out in the ..... above from Maddocks' review, how Stemme got back on track is indicated thus:
"Nina Stemme, ardent and accomplished as Brünnhilde, even if the limited staging did not quite unleash her full dramatic potential, missed an entry – in that heat, made worse by bright stage lights, anyone would sympathise. The only point in mentioning it is to note Terfel's professionalism. Barenboim tried to cue her. Without losing a beat, Terfel saw Stemme's situation and started singing her line himself (would all singers have known the words? Probably not.) A few seconds later she regained her poise and took over."
You can hear, for half a line, both Stemme's and Terfel's voices singing together, the first 4 words of this line:
"Die im Kampfe Wotan
den Rücken bewacht....
"When Wotan is at war
I guard his back...."
Then Terfel let go and Stemme was safe home for the rest of the performance..
Normally, in an opera house, there is a prompter hidden from public view, but whom the singers can see, in case they forget their lines. In a concert performance like this, however, there's no place for a prompter. Thus that job would most likely fall to the conductor, or in this case, a fellow singer. So score one for Bryn Terfel, for helping a colleague in her moment of need.
Oh, about the iPlayer thing: normally, with live concerts broadcast on BBC Radio 3, the BBC makes the transmissions accessible via their iPlayer for a week after the broadcast. Interestingly, for at least the 1st 3 Ring operas, where over a week has passed since those operas were performed and broadcast, you can still access the performances as of this time. Interest was tremendously high for these performances in advance, so presumably BBC Radio 3 decided to relax the usual one-week deadline here regarding iPlayer. Of course, one has to know where to look :) .
So with that, as this is another mash-up for a Saturday night diary from self, you can (a) comment on this diary, or (b) observe the usual SNLC protocol. There will probably be at least one more diary related to this set of performances soon, not that you asked ;) .