Well. That was exciting.
First Mozart Requiem performance of the run was tonight. This was the performance dedicated to Mary Ann, and we'd done both the Lacrymosa from the Requiem and Ave Verum Corpus (which we now have a tradition of tagging onto the end of the Requiem) at her memorial service. I had my hankie at the ready, and it was a good thing. I teared up a little during the Rex Tremendae (at the lines "salva me, fons pietatis," where I was thinking of Lillian, whose name I wore in the Rolling Requiem in 2002. And during the Lacrymosa, I started crying, not enough so that I couldn't sing, but enough to have tears rolling down my face. It was a really great performance. And then at the very end, right after the maestro lowered his baton, but before the applause began... one of our sopranos fainted. She's very young, and she hadn't eaten or slept enough (high school student with finals), and she locked her knees. She was waiting for the chorus to be released at the end of the performance, she was low enough on oxygen that sitting down to rest didn't occur to her. And as soon as we were let go, she swayed, and over she went. She wasn't hurt in the fall, but was out cold for a good minute or two, white as a sheet. Luckily, she is going to be fine, we have a nurse with paramedic training in the chorus and there's an on call doctor, and the medics arrived and checked her out. But it was rather distressing and nobody quite knew what to do. The stage manager asked the chorus to clear the stage in preparation for the medics to arrive, and then announced over the PA system that the concert was over, the audience started to applaud but weren't sure if they should, 3/4 of the chorus was off stage by then, the soloists and orchestra stood briefly.
She was waking up and answering questions when I left, and we saw the nurse later in the restaurant across the street where we were waiting out the parking traffic, who confirmed that she was fine, just freaked out. I decided that if she was going to die of anything? It would be embarrassment.
She was waking up and answering questions when I left, and we saw the nurse later in the restaurant across the street where we were waiting out the parking traffic, who confirmed that she was fine, just freaked out. I decided that if she was going to die of anything? It would be embarrassment.