Although the scene resembled a Marx Brothers movie, there was nothing funny
about the multiple emergencies almost capsizing the San Francisco Opera's
"Simon Boccanegra" in the War Memorial on Friday.

To begin with, Paolo Gavanelli, who sings the title role, had the flu,
a bad case.  He went on anyway, but couldn't finish the performance.
When the call went out for a "baritone in the house," there was just one
available, Boccanegra's deadly enemy, Paolo, sung by Nikolai Putilin.

So, Putilin took over the role of the man he would have poisoned later, and
the role of Paolo went to Patrick Carfizzi - all the role changes and role
reversals happening during intermission.

At the same time, Carol Vaness had an asthma attack, but she completed her
assignment as Amelia, and few in the audience suspected the circumstances
she was fighting vocally, never mind the fact that her former nasty suitor
became her long-lost father, giving Verdi a new kind of psycho-sexual
complexity.  Raymond Aceto, singing Pietro, had a throat infection and he
too would have quit during intermission if only all the other problems
didn't throw the evening into turmoil.

At the Sunday performance, Putilin continued as Boccanegra, Carfizzi
singing Paolo through the full opera.  Gavenelli is expected to return
on Wednesday.

Janos Gereben/SF
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