For any opera singer one performance can be enough to put a strain on her vocal cords but what about performing two major roles in the same day?
On Saturday at the Metropolitan Opera the mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Bishop will lend her voice not only to the matinee production of Poulenc’s “Dialogues of the Carmelites†as Mother Marie, but she will also step into the role of Fricka for the the 8 p.m. performance of Wagner’s “Das Rheingold.†Stephanie Blythe, who was to sing the role, has fallen ill.
According to the Met, a dual performance of this kind is a rarity. It said that the most recent example at the Met was when the tenor Marcello Giordani sang in Berlioz’s “Damnation de Faust†and Puccini’s â€Madama Butterfly†in 2008. Before that, the Met’s last recorded instance was in 1961.
