Yes, that's right. You just never know who will cancel or why. The last SFO Jenufa lost its Jenufa and Kostelnicka less than two months before the run. Janice Watson had just learned Eva for the SFO Meistersinger, and she had a new baby, and Jenufa was too much for her. Patricia Racette stepped in. Elizabeth Connell, scheduled for Kostelnicka, had to head for England, where her house had been burglarized. Kathryn Harries took that role.
See also: that Otello that Ben Heppner was supposed to sing here, where I think four tenors subbed for him, and the Tristan in NYC that was billed as "Heppner & Voigt, together at last!" Except that they were both in and out for most of the run.
We're now 4 performances into Troyens, and so far it's Bryan Hymel 2, Corey Bix 2. Everyone is hoping Hymel will be back on stage for performances 5 and 6; if not, Bix will be singing.
I was idly thinking of who, among living tenors, even knows the role, which is set on the high and heroic side. It's not like trying to find someone to sing Rodolfo, which is in the repertory of every lyric tenor.
Here are the lucky few, several of whom are no longer capable of singing the part, for reasons of voice, age, or health. (Several added as an update following a comment from the invaluable and well-informed Rob Gordon.)
- Jon Vickers (in his late 80s, rumored to be in poor health)
- Giorgio Lamberti (retired)
- Placido Domingo (there is no way)
- Gregory Kunde
- Ben Heppner (retired)
- Bryan Hymel (felled by the SF fog?)
- Corey Bix (covering Hymel)
- Marcello Giordani (more or less fired from the part in favor of Hymel at the Met in 2013; retired the role when he dropped out of the run)
- Brandon Jovanovich (Rumored to be learning the part and said in an interview that he planned to sing Enée)
- Roberto Alagna (sang it in Europe in 2013 and 2014)
- Jonas Kaufmann? An article on Hymel indicates that Kaufmann was to sing the ROH production.
- Lance Ryan
- Richard Crawley
- Sergei Semishkur
- Leonid Zakhozhaev
- Viktor Lutsyuk
Surely I'm missing someone. And if my name were, say, Stuart Skelton, I'd think about learning this part. He and Jovanovich have that rare combination of vocal weight and purely beautiful sound, and they sing an overlapping and somewhat unusual repertory. They are the two tenors I would most want to hear as Enée.
