News

Flying Tenor Saves the Day!

23rd June, 2022

There was high drama at Glyndebourne this week as English tenor Adam Gilbert was flown in at the eleventh hour to save the show after a tenor and his understudy fell ill.

Adam received the call at midday on Tuesday for the show that evening, meaning he had to get to Glyndebourne, in East Sussex, from Ceredigion - 280 miles away. Glyndebourne Festival Opera decided to charter a helicopter, which landed with just minutes to spare for the production of Ethel Smyth's The Wreckers.

Adam, who lives in Cenarth, had rehearsed in April for the production at Glyndebourne Festival 2022, but with Rodrigo Porras Garulo playing the role of Marc, he never expected to have the opportunity to perform the role.
"I certainly didn't expect this when I woke up yesterday morning," he said.
His plan had been to take his three-year-old son to see the seals at Cardigan Island before the urgent call came from Glyndebourne asking if he could "drop everything and get on my way".

With the railways out of action due to stroke action, he drove as far as Bristol when the opera house called back to say a helicopter would be waiting for him in Bath.
"I've never been in a helicopter before," he said.
"I was just trying to keep calm and chilled rather than getting worked up because being stressed makes [singing] harder."
The first act was already under way when he arrived, with Rodrigo Porras Garulo doing his best to sing.
"It was a very bizarre... with my bag running over a field. A bit like Tom Cruise... but actually more like Mr. Bean."

He said freelance singers had to "live in the moment " so he put on his suit, had a quick warm up and a sandwich, then he was on stage.

"Considering the situation, I was very happy with how it went."

"It was one of those evenings," said Glyndebourne's artistic director Stephen Langridge.

"Talk about the show must go on."

Operas normally have just one understudy, but with Covid infections still around and the fact The Wreckers is known to very few singers, they had decided to get the "extra insurance" by asking Adam to be their second understudy.

"We were all over Google Maps wondering when he would arrive," Mr. Langridge said.

"When it was clear he wouldn't make it we chartered the helicopter to pick him up.The promo beneath our name is 'no ordinary opera' which can be hard to live up to sometimes, but [last night] was certainly not ordinary, not one to forget."

He said the rail strike meant many audience members had spent hours driving to the show, so cancelling was "not an option".
"If they made a movie, they'd have to call it “Topgun Tenor."

Adam only made the transition to becoming a tenor in 2019 prior to the Covid outbreak, having worked professionally as a baritone for 10 years before then. Since making the transition, he has been appointed as an Associate Artist with Welsh National Opera where his roles have included Steva in Jenufa, the roles of Dad and Queen of Hearts in Will Todd's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in open air performances at The National Trust's Dyffryn Gardens and cover Pinkerton in Madame Butterfly. He also covered the role of Rodolfo in La Boheme at English National Opera this season, and was similarly asked to jump in at short notice for one of their performances, but there were no helicopters involved on that occasion.

Next season, Adam will perform the role of Father in Kurt Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires conducted by Jan Latham-Koenig and will also be returning to WNO as a guest artist to perform the role of Emlyn in the new opera Blaze of Glory by David Hackbridge Johnson.

For any enquiries about Adam, please contact Sioned Jones sioned.jones@harlequin-agency.co.uk