There was an audible groan through the audience at Wednesday night’s performance of Iphigenia in Tauris when it was announced that baritone Russell Braun had a cold.
But the Canadian Opera Company audience was quickly elated — and some clapped with joy — when they learned Braun was going to perform anyway.
A cold can do serious damage to a singer’s vocal chords, Braun says in an interview from his Georgetown home Thursday, so he was cautious about performing when he felt ill.
The 46-year-old performer, who has only once withdrawn from a performance due to ill health, first noticed he was getting a sore throat on Monday night after being asked to sing “O Canada” at his son’s sporting event.
“I’ve been around a lot of colds with the kids back at school and at the opera too,” says Braun, adding he set out immediately on Tuesday morning to fight the cold with everything that he had.
Vitamin C, Cold FX, Echinacea and oil of oregano are Braun’s standard cold treatments. A few years ago the family built a steam room in the basement and, while it seemed a luxury at the time, Braun says it comes in handy to fight congestion.
“Fifteen years ago, 10 years ago, I would have panicked,” says Braun, but he knows all sorts of tricks to stave off a cold and protect his voice in a production.
Admitting it’s a double-edged sword to announce that a performer has a cold — it sets people up to expect something inferior and then they wonder what all the fuss was about — Braun decided it was the proper way to acknowledge to those who know his voice well that he wasn’t in top form.
The role of Orestes is emotionally and physically taxing, says Braun, and throughout the opera’s run which began Sept. 22 he’s learned not to overexert his voice in the explosive opening.
Even when healthy, he says: “I always feel incredibly drained after this opera.”
He’s resting and drinking lots of fluids and hoping he’ll be much better on Saturday afternoon for the next show.
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