Not too long ago I attended a fine performance of an opera at the Met in which one the principal singers was not having a good night. She was cast in one of the leading roles and very little went right. She moved about the stage fitfully and without motivation. Her acting seemed vague and distracted. In terms of “hitting her marks,” which is to say being where the light is, where the scenery was moving, where another character might be arriving, she was erratic.
Similarly, her singing was a mess. This is not to say that she is not gifted but simply that on that evening she was not in command of her gifts and resources. Perhaps she was ill — many artists at the Met right now are battling colds, flu, sore throats, coughs and other maladies — or perhaps there was some emotional or personal crisis that she could not leave at the edge of the stage before going in front of the audience.
Because this particular opera is a popular standard repertory work, I suspect that many people in the audience were not regular operagoers capable of discerning this singer’s difficulties. She was greeted with a warm ovation at the curtain call. In this case, I think it is because her character is quite sympathetic and has some of the most beautiful music in the opera. But she seemed astonished at the reception because, no doubt, she knew that she did not have a good night.
Singers face challenges when it comes to deciding whether or not to perform when they are sick or something else is going wrong in their lives. If they do not sing they do not get paid. At the Met and some other theaters, if a singer performs the first act of an opera she will be paid a fee for the evening even if she withdraws from the rest of the performance and needs to be replaced. But if a singer is thought to routinely sing the first act and then cancel, she would be less likely to be offered future contracts.
Major opera companies have covers (understudies) who are on call in case a scheduled artist cancels. Smaller opera companies do not always have covers. Big Broadway shows have understudies but many smaller theaters, even the best ones, do not. Recently I have been notified by the Public Theater and the New York Theater Workshop that performances were cancelled due to an actor's illness.
There are other pressures for performers to "go on." Artists have living expenses just as you and I do and also put a portion of each fee into college savings for their children. These singers feel a sense of obligation to their managers, to their colleagues, the theaters who engage them, to their families and to audiences. They feel guilty and conflicted if they take a sick day.
In the not too distant past, these issues were mostly the private domain of singers and opera managements. If a singer had a bad night, it would mostly be known to some of the audience members who were present as well as people backstage. Nowadays, everything is different because of the way social media can spread and sometimes distort events and information that used to be known in a more limited way.
This elicits a recollection that provided an important but painful lesson for me. Several years ago, when Twitter and smartphones were still not widely used, I attended a performance at the Met starring one of the leading artists of our time, whom I shall refer to as (Beloved Soprano). This singer was doing one of the touchstone roles of the soprano repertory, and there was huge audience interest in seeing how she would fare. A friend of mine who works in the music business flew in from Europe to attend with me.
At the intermission, my soft-spoken friend asked, “So, what do you think?” I responded in a low voice, “Clearly (Beloved Soprano) has a cold but she is such a professional and her preparation is so thorough that she is still giving an excellent performance. What a shame she has to deal with a cold on a big night like this.”
Neither my friend nor I knew what Twitter (created March 21, 2006, 10 years ago this month!) was. You can imagine my surprise when someone called me the next day to say that a person I did not know had “Tweeted,” in effect, that Fred Plotkin said that (Beloved Soprano) had a cold and did not sing well. I certainly regretted this happening because I really do like this artist, and it was not my intention to make an observation that would get wide exposure. Apart from anything else, I don’t want to affect the perceptions of an artist who might be having a bad night like the one I heard just the other day.
The lesson I learned from that experience is that I can never say anything in public, even in a low voice to a friend, that might be overheard and repeated, lest it be given an inaccurate twist. Mass communications, especially those reduced to 140 characters, rarely capture in a thorough and nuanced way an issue that is being described.
So now, if someone comes up to me at a performance of say, Fidelio, to ask what I think of a performance that might be having problems, I will answer, “I love Fidelio!” or “I love Beethoven!” But no specific comments. It is a shame that opera lovers who revere singers can no longer speak analytically but respectfully.
An even bigger problem is that opera singers, especially young ones who grew up on social media, are too quick to say too much. Let us take the case of someone I will call (Admirable Male Singer). This man is known to most of you. He is incredibly gifted and a deeply insightful artist. I go to everything he is in because he is never less than great even if I happen to think a role might not be congenial for his voice and temperament. I love how he expands his artistic boundaries and takes risks.
However, he took a risk a few years ago that proved costly: he was suffering from a cold, cough and congestion and gave regular updates on his health (including his inflamed vocal cords) on Facebook. He did this because he felt isolated and upset and also because he knew that he would get supportive messages from other singers who knew what he was going through. The problem was that a couple of opera executives read this, as did media, and word started to spread that perhaps (Admirable Male Singer) might not be dependable enough and had long-term vocal health issues.
I sent (Admirable Male Singer) a private message telling him that he might not be aware that his medical postings were doing him more harm than good. He quickly took them down, and I see that he no longer is as revealing of basic facts in his life. And his career is flourishing. I hope that he has support in his private life on those days when he (as we all sometimes do) need a shoulder to lean on.
The larger issue here is that many young opera singers share on Facebook, Twitter and other platforms too freely, with little awareness of the potential fallout. They grew up with social media and have a different sense of public and private than their elders do. I noticed that older, more experienced opera singers use social media with much more discretion, sometimes using their lives and experiences as signposts and cautionary examples for younger artists.
I teach a class in some young artists programs called “Media, Social Media, and the Opera Singer” to help the next generation of singers understand both the challenges and benefits that exist when social media are involved. It is useful for me too because I learn the latest trends from them. These are talented young people, eager to be noticed and hired at a time when simply being artistically gifted and a collaborative colleague are no longer enough.
By the way, I have looked at the social media of the artist I discussed at the beginning of this article. Glad to say, she mentioned absolutely nothing about what she might have been facing. I wish her well.