Well. It was a darn good thing this wasn’t a “Sing-Along.” Because on January 5, 1996, a 63-year-old tenor with the Metropolitan Opera dropped dead on stage. Yes, he did. He had just finished reaching up to a high B and then a B flat as he sang the words “Too bad you can only live so long,” and there he went.
Singing a B flat. And second later, he “be flat” on the stage.
His name was Richard Versalle, and he was playing the role of Vitek, an elderly clerk in a law firm. I should note, lawyers are listed as having the fifth most stressful jobs. Opera singers were not on that list. I wonder if he had been playing the Barber of Seville, if he would have left the stage standing.
It was a heart attack, by the way. Some of the audience members thought it was part of the performance, as he had been standing on a ladder during the scene and fell abruptly.
They canceled the rest of the performance. I guess the old phrase, “The Show Must Go On,” did not hold true in this case.
Perhaps it was the prophetic words, “Too bad you can only live so long,” that did him in. Or possibly, those two “B” notes he had to hit.
Which brings out the most obvious question: “To be, or not to be?”
When the words become the being. Or not.
