Is there a tenor in the house - in a rural spot, just 500 miles north
of San Francisco?

Yes.  His name is Mark Beudert, and he has a knack for being at the right
place at the (to others) wrong time.

Beudert was in Eugene today - understandably as he is associate professor
of music at the University of Oregon.  Logically too assembled forces of
the Oregon Bach Festival were on the spot, ready for the 4 p.m.  festival
season finale of Verdi's Requiem.  To say on the spot is a mild expression
when you consider that Helmuth Rilling and the festival were facing the
performance without a tenor.

Vinson Cole, a frequent man-to-the-rescue himself, came down with food
poisoning the night before, and by morning he was almost OK, but his throat
far from it.  No cover.  The call went out for a tenor, to sing the Verdi,
right here, right now.

Beudert said he'd try, and went to a final, hour-long rehearsal, along
with Camilla Nylund, Susan Platts, and Michail Schelomianski.  My sources
say he knocked 'em dead.  I am waiting for the same sources to tell me what
happened at the performance, which is on at the time of this writing.

Here comes the part about the knack.  Apparently, Beudert made a name
for himself at the NY Shakespeare Festival production of "The Pirates of
Penzance." He assumed the role of Frederic with 25 minutes notice and no
rehearsal, and his performance, the first of many opposite Kevin Kline and
George Rose, earned him fame (if no fortune).  Still.  G&S is not Verdi;
"Pirates" is no Requiem.  But there are other good omens for today's rescue
operation in Beudert's biography.  He studied with Franco Corelli, won the
1985 Luciano Pavarotti Competition in Philadelphia, made his New York City
Opera debut the following year in "La Traviata" (where I heard him - but
didn't think of him until today 's news), later appeared with the
Washington Opera as Nerone in "L'Incornazione di Poppea."

Beudert sang Pinkerton in Australia, in 1988 appeared in the title role
of "Candide" in the new Jonathan Miller production for the Scottish Opera,
which was filmed by the BBC and recorded.  He went with this production to
London, where the show won the Olivier Award for best musical.  He had his
doctoral studies at the University of Michigan (with George Shirley), and
sang in opera and oratorio everywhere from Portugal to Ireland.  Then he
settled in Eugene (with wife and three children), ready to come to the
rescue.  To finish this story right, he just had to be sensational today.

Beudert has some future assignments - including "Onegin" in Delaware,
"Carmen" in Eugene" and "Street Scenes" in Torino, but I have a feeling
he'll start turning up in Stuttgart, Venezuela and elsewhere where Rilling
takes "his singers." Getting the Verdi Requiem, with an hour's rehearsal,
is one way to earn a place among them.

Janos Gereben/SF
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