Does anyone have any good anecdotes about opera singers?

Question

You know how these stories are ...maybe un-confirmable ....but it is said that ~

Madame Schumann-Heink, the Czech contralto who was thought to be a little portly, was at dinner one time. The waiter brought to her table a platter with a huge steak. One of her dinner partners said, "Madame, are you eating that steak alone?"

"Why no," she said, "mit potatoes!"

*******

Another time she was having difficulty getting through a narrow passage. Someone near her suggested that she would be able to get through if she would turn sideways.

"I haff no sideways!" she answered

Answer 1

the Tosca incident was supposed to be done on purpose (switching mattress with a trampoline) I believe it was done to Montserrat Caballe ..... these I personally saw ... the cast was told not to approach nor speak to Pavarotti at his request so during short breaks in the staging of the show the little kids would be about 10 feet away from him gawking at the opera superstar and he summoned each one over one at a time and had a chat with each one .... the same production had Renata Scotto (right after her feud with Pavarotti started) so the stage director kept banging her head in frustration because they would sing their love duets from opposite sides of the stage ..... then there are the dozens of Kathleen Battle stories ... one where she calls her manager to tell the limo driver to turn up the heat in the car

Answer 2

I know of two -- but they may be apocryphal.

In a suicide scene (I think from Tosca, but I am not real good with opera plots), Maria Callas was to jump off a precipice and land backstage on a trampoline. She bounced up from the trampoline more than once, appearing above the set in various positions before she was able to dismount.

Toscanini was frustrated when, during rehearsal (don't know which opera or performer is involved here) the lead soprano, a rather buxom lady, could not get her cue right -- she either came in a beat late or a beat early, or on the wrong pitch. After numerous restarts, Toscanini, in one of his famous fits of rage, approached her, grabbed her bosom, and said "If only these-a were BRAINS!"

Answer 3

First off, I have heard that one about Callas, but apparently it was a mattress and not a trampoline.

I have a few others about Tosca performances, but I only know one to be true for sure:

Apparently, in one performance, the chorus was instructed to do whatever Tosca did. So in the last scene, one by one they climbed the wall on the set and jumped off after her (that one is supposedly true.)

Another one happened in the scene where she stabs Scarpia. Apparently, the stage hands forgot to put the fake knife on the set table, so the Tosca grabbed the first semi-appropriate thing she saw and ended up stabbing Scarpia with a banana:!

Answer 4

In "Siegfried", by Richard Wagner does Siegfried hit the anvil with the sword he just restored. It then splits in two. Leaving Mime desperate and Siegfried Triumphing.
there was a performance where Mimes beard got stuck in the anvil because he accidentally pressed the hidden button that split the Anvil. When he tried to close it again his beard got stuck.

Answer 5

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Answer 6

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Answer 7

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