... To Forgive Divine

It sounded for a few raucous moments as if Mickey Mantle had popped up with the bases loaded. While the performer stood transfixed, boos, catcalls and whistles filled the warm night air. Occasion: an open-air performance of Aida at Verona, during which Soprano Antonietta Stella committed the unpardonable sin of muffing a high C in the difficult third-act aria O patria mia.

For two acts Stella had been in fine voice: her famous Ritorna vincitor! aria had brought a thunderous ovation. But by the third act Stella's voice sounded shaky. When she came to her great third-act aria, her voice suddenly lapsed into a dolorous wail on the phrase "no, mai piu," which ends on a high C. Then the voice vanished like a blown-out flame.

The music stopped and, as the boos mounted, Stella fled the stage. But after 15 minutes of the sort of anger that only Italians can feel about an operatic misdemeanor, the crowd had a change of heart and began to chant: "We forgive you, Stella." Urgently prompted by the management, the soprano finally returned to the stage, supported by Baritone Giangiacomo Guelfi. Slowly advancing to the footlights, she knelt, gazed beseechingly at her public and bent forward until her forehead touched the stage. "Forgive me," said she in a squeaky voice. "I've been feeling poorly all day." The audience gave a cheer, and the opera went on, with Stella prudently transposing her highest notes down one octave. "Poor girl," said one fan. "I wouldn't want that to happen even to Callas."

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