La Fille du Regiment

The entrance to the Metropolitan Opera

Juan Diego Florez created a stir in the opera world by performing an encore during the opening night of the Metropolitan Opera's La Fille du Regiment. The event caught the attention of the New York Times and other media outlets around the world. Mr. Florez has performed encores in other venues in recent years, but no singer since Pavaratti in 1994 had done so at the Met. Opera fans tuned into the Met's Saturday matinee radio broadcast on April 26th hoping to hear a repeat of this encore. Despite a very enthusiastic ovation from the sold out crowd, Mr. Florez did not repeat the tour de force aria "Ah! Mes Ami." The audience sounded like a deflating balloon as the orchestra began to play the next piece. I attended the third showing of this opera on May 2nd anticipating that maybe I would get lucky.

Juan Diego Florez in the current production of La Fille du Regiment

(Sarah Krulwich/The New York Times)

The theater was once again sold out for this Saturday evening performance, and all around me people were discussing the possibility of an encore. Mr. Florez hit the 9 high Cs that make this aria so difficult and the crowd errupted. I clapped and yelled "Bravo!" for at least 3 minutes, which is actually kind of embarrassing. The applause faded and the orchestra began to play the first notes of the next piece. Without hesitation, I let out a long "boooooo". An older French opera connoisseur seated to my right turned to give me a glare that reflected pure disgust.

A week later, I picked up the Opera News magazine which had been resting on the kitchen table and noticed a large piece on Juan Diego Florez. The article focused on his role in La Fille du Regiment and discussed in great detail the reasoning behind an encore. Mr. Florez explained that he only performs an encore when the audience gives him an extraordinary response. At one performance in Europe, he had received a five minute ovation after singing "Ah! Mes Ami." As I read the article, I began to appreciate how special an encore was to this particular singer. If he were to always repeat an aria, Mr. Florez reasoned, the act would be trivialized. A sense of remorse slowly crept though my spine. After some very expensive therapy, I can now admit that I was wrong to 'boo' at the May 2nd performance. Great singers are like great wines. They have bad nights, good nights and great nights. Diversity of performance is what makes the great bottles of wine and the great nights at the opera so special.