Jonas Kaufmann has been forced to withdraw from all performances of Cavalleria Rusticana at London's Royal Opera House due to Covid-19.
The German tenor had announced a partial withdrawal on his Facebook page on 1 July: he was due to perform in both Leoncavallo's Pagliacci and Mascagni's Cavalleria, programmed as a double bill, but initially decided to abandon Pagliacci and was replaced by Fabio Sartori. He had also cancelled the first two performances of Cavalleria on 5 and 8 July and was replaced by South Korean tenor SeokJong Baek.
Explaining that decision, he wrote on his Facebook page: 'Having caught Covid yet again, this time on top of an ongoing recovery from the flu, I have had to withdraw from the original plan of singing these wonderfully contrasting parts - Turiddu and Canio - in order to concentrate only on Cavalleria Rusticana for my comeback. I’m keep my fingers crossed that I will be back on track and ready to perform later in the run.'
However, he has subsequently pulled out of the entire run of performances of Cavalleria, as the Royal Opera House explained in a statement: 'Mr Kaufmann is continuing to recover from Covid-19 and is not well enough to sing the remaining performances.' SeokJong Baek will perform in Kaufmann’s place.
The double bill has suffered a number of cancellations, including the withdrawal of Sartori from several performances, also due to Covid-19, in which he was replaced by Roberto Alagna.
Photo © Gregor Hohenberg / Sony Classical