Eric Goldberg <[log in to unmask]> writes:

>When you realize that an opera singer needs to know the score, the libretto
>and the blocking, which changes with each different production, one must
>give the singers respect for getting though the evening without having a
>nervous breakdown.

My experience in the Bad Old Days was that those singers who needed the
prompter would tend to be those who didn't know the production either and
had little insight into the words they were singing.  They tended to hover
round the prompt box looking vaguely embarrassed to be on stage, like lost
lambs trying to look nonchalant whilst avoiding the slaughterhouse.

Luckily, it seems the prompter has disappeared from (most) civilised
opera houses in most civilised operas.

Christopher Webber,  Blackheath, London,  UK.
http://www.nashwan.demon.co.uk/zarzuela.htm
"ZARZUELA!"