Joyce DiDonato: Tip-Top Trouper
Joyce DiDonato (featured in this video), who seems to be replacing Renee Fleming as everyone’s favorite American singer, gave a master class in trouper-dom the other night. Onstage at London’s Covent Garden in “Il Barbiere di Siviglia,” DiDonato collided with a banister. She recovered quickly and seemed fine, but re-emerged in the next scene with a walking stick. After the interval, the stick had turned into a more supportive crutch, which she wielded to great comic effect (she also inserted an extra line into the recitative explaining that she had a cramp in her foot.) Turns out that DiDonato was in considerable pain from having broken a bone above her ankle during the accident. I hope they had Advil (or Vicodin!) backstage. (Note on video I have posted here: it’s from a Chicago performance, not the London performance in question.)
