Opera singer breaks a leg on stage

Joyce DiDonato to perform at Covent Garden in wheelchair

Published: July 7, 2009 at 1:01 pm

When mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato slipped over in the first act of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville and hurt her ankle, she picked herself up and went on to sing for another three hours. It was only after finishing the Royal Opera House performance on Saturday that she found out her hurt ankle was in fact a fractured leg.

The American singer, who will make her Covent Garden appearance this Tuesday in a wheelchair, fractured her right fibula.‘Apparently this kind of injury requires absolutely no weight to be put on it,’ wrote DiDonato in her blog. ‘I’m crossing fingers that not too much damage was done.’

‘I think this is the first time we’ve had something like this happen,’ says a Royal Opera House spokesperson to BBC News. ‘At the time Joyce was very brave carrying on.… Obviously, the audience members were delighted she carried on and obviously gave her their full appreciation at the end of the evening.’

‘I don’t know that I have ever experienced an evening quite like this one before, but I’m certain that I have invoked a new policy regarding well-wishers,’ says DiDonato. ‘From here on out, I declare that no one, please, ever, ever, ever, wish me again, in the American fashion, to "break a leg".’

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