Lucia di Lammermoor in Moscow 2007

In the dead of Russian winter, I ran off to Moscow to sing Lucia di Lammermoor in a concert version with the Russian National Orchestra. It had been billed as "Laura Claycomb as Lucia" all over the place, and I did the requisite gazillion interviews. I was given the opportunity to choose my conductor, so of course I chose Patrick Summers, who was felicitously available in that period. It was a fabulous cast: Joseph Calleja was Edgardo, Pauls Putnins was the priest and Vasily Gerello was my evil brother. We had wonderful rehearsals and then did a dress rehearsal..

THEN I got the worst flu of my entire life. Chills, fever, sinus dripping and swollen, throat swollen like you would not believe, headache, achey joints, you name it. And I had two days until "my" concert.

So, Pauls, lovely colleague that he was, brought me soup from the nearby restaurant, and basically took care of me while I was ill. And he had just met me! Very, very sweet and not at all required, but MUCH appreciated!! A lovely older lady throat doctor came to my hotel room, spread out her materials, sterilized her instruments, put the little mirror thingy on her head and proceeded to check me out. I hadn't seen a mirror thingy you put over your eye in ages! Mischa, the producer, nervously translated. He never knew how to say TONSILS, AdENOIDS, MUCUS, etc... in English before, I bet! She left me with strict instructions and a huge grocery list of products for Mischa to buy. One of them was raspberry jam. I was to eat it (for my fever) every hour, on the hour, mixed in a bit of warm water. I took lots of vitamins, etc... but basically all they had was aspirin. No anti-inflammatories, etc... Western Medicines don't seem to have reached to Russia yet. It was wild!!

But I did get a bit better, and the day of the concert, they scrambled and found a girl who'd sung Lucia at the St. Petersburg Opera who flew in, just in case. Patrick came to my room to warm me up (on my little flat keyboard - Patrick didn't know how to play it, as it doesn't have any raised black keys, so you can't feel your way around the keyboard. He said I sounded OK and it didn't sound like the cords were swollen per se, but we made some judicious cuts and simplified a few things and took out some high notes here and there.

When we got to the concert, I was more nervous than I've ever been. I really didn't want to disappoint the public there. Now I know how Renee Fleming must feel! Yikes - people were waiting to hear ME, not just hear a concert of a piece. It was sold out. So when they announced I was ill, you could hear people's disappointed sighs, etc... until they announced "But she will muster through and sing tonight," at which they broke through with animated applause and whoops. No pressure here, huh?

So my first entrance is my least favorite aria, Regnava nel silenzio, which kicks my butt even on a good day. So I mustered my way through it, and floated what I could, nuanced the crap out of what I could, and got through it. Not my best singing, but the audience was appreciative. I kept chugging down water throughout the concert - onstage! I think I went through three bottles even in my first entrance.

Anyhow, I was trying to pace myself, as I didn't know if my voice would hold up for the entire evening. After all, I had the world's worst runny nose and still had a fever, and lord knows what was going on down in my throat?

I got through the duet with Edgardo, got through the duet with my brother, and low and behold, got through the big ensemble at the end of the second act. By the time I got to the mad scene, I figured - well, this is it. I still had a voice, so I might as well go all out. So I sang the poop out of the mad scene and gave every ounce of voice I had left - and it went wonderfully! The audience went wild and we got great reviews. Joseph was fantastic - it's like a voice out of an old, "golden age of singing" recording. I hope I get to sing with him again. And I had a little crush on Pauls after all his help - he is a hunk, after all!! A sweet one, at that.

So all in all, it was a success... but not after a WHOLE lot of drama!! Thanks to everyone who helped me out - you are ALL fantastic!