I used to sneak my wife into the Metropolitan Opera when I subbed there. We would meet afterwards at the artists entrance.
On January 15, 1986 there was a performance of Tosca- with Pavarotti singing the part of painter Mario Cavaradossi. In the first act that night, there was this terrible mishap. Pavarotti accidentally knocked over his painter’s easel with his stomach and it fell to the ground. Then, horror of horrors, the audience began laughing at him. After the performance, Pavarotti stampeded into the artists entrance- yelling and cursing in Italian. People around him tried to calm him down- but to no avail. My intrepid wife thought, at this point, that this would be a good time to get Pavarotti to sign her program. He signed it- cursing and screaming the whole time!
Page 1Made with FlippingBook. PDF to flipbook with ease