Sir Thomas Allen saves a performance of 'Le nozze di Figaro' by appearing at the last moment to replace Jeffrey Black as Count Almaviva. An excerpt from the documentary 'The House' (1996).
I managed to get a copy of this episode from someone who had the whole series (or most of it, as they said, since it was from some pretty old video tapes). You can really tell how much people love Sir Tom; it's really fantastic to see such a brilliant response from the audience.
Sir Thomas has played this role many times. I was intrigued to hear him ask for a physical description of the Countess and then from the description call her "substantial". Still, he's a gorgeous man with a commanding voice.
PS. Many thanks for uploading this - I've been trying to get hold of this episode for some time. By the way, I have an audio recording of this performance. Figaro that evening was a certain Bryn Terfel:)
"He's someone who will be familiar to you in the role in this production. His name is Thomas Allen." - I love the laughter immediately after that. I suspect some people thought Jeremy Isaacs was joking.
There's an in-house recording - very decent quality. At least, I think it must be a recording of that performance - Allen gets applaued after his first 'Susanna', when he appears on stage, as he is in the documentary, and the date of the audio is right as well. Send me a message if you're interested in details.
Yes, indeed. It's a shame that it was so unflattering but then again, it's good that they included brilliant moments like this which shows that there are true professionals out there which give opera a good name. 'Better cut all this' made me laugh as well.
He didn't fly in from LA specifically to save the show, it was a coincidence that they called him up to see if he could sing Almaviva and he had arrived in London not long ago.
