The soprano Lisette Oropesa sings alone an aria from The Traviata, “Semper Libera”, an opera that normally requires two voices: a soprano and a tenor. While she waits on the tune at the piano during the part which is usually sung by the tenor, a voice rises in the audience: a spectator has spontaneously begun to interpret the missing part.
The spectator was a student at the conservatory
This video has received a lot of “Likes” on Twitter since Monday, but it was actually filmed in October and has been circulating on Chinese social media and TikTok for several weeks. Indeed, if the scene took place in Parma in Italy, more precisely at the Verdi festival, the talented spectator is Chinese. It is about a student of the conservatory of Piacenza, who had already worked on this opera, reports France Info.
Lisette Oropesa displayed a big smile and thanked the spectator for a “grazie”, before resuming her game. Once the performance was over, the student went to meet her in front of her dressing room to apologize to her. On the Chinese social network Weibo, he indeed argued that his interruption of the opera was rude and could have destabilized the singer. He asked internet users not to imitate him. He apparently couldn’t help it.
This tune was an improvised reminder
If the video moved many Internet users, others wondered if it was a staging or even found the interruption inappropriate, even macho. We must already understand why the soprano sang this duet alone: after a solo recital, she came back on stage for several rappels. This tune was therefore not originally intended, and the piano accompanied it all the same on the parts for which it lacked a partner.
In addition this aria is a declaration of love, and the tenor is precisely supposed to be in the distance, behind the audience, highlights Radio Classique. The singer’s surprise must therefore have been even greater.