Second False Alarm Sabotages Performance

No longer can one hope that the fire alarm which sent both cast and audience into the streets a few minutes into the second performance of Don Carlos (see article) was some kind of fluke. Exactly five minutes before the climactic end of the fourth performance (last night: Tuesday, November 4) our hearts sank as the familiar sounds of a fire alarm going off were heard throughout the house. This was not coincidence: it was an act of sabotage, which deprived the audience of a dramatic resolution and the cast (including a fabulous debut by Stephen Milling in the role of Phillip II) their well-deserved applause, as stage management wisely decided that it would not be worth it to bring the audience back in the house for less than five minutes of opera.

Unlike the first time, there were only a few Supers and choristers around. Over on the Hayes Street door, Supers who were cast as the King's Guards became the Queen's Guards, shielding Miss Mescheriakova and Miss Urmana from possible misbehavior by the admiring throngs, most of whom applauded or complimented the singers as they passed by.

This season's opening of the S.F. Symphony on September 3rd was interrupted by a false fire alarm. What was playing? The Firebird.

Don Carlo #2 was interrupted a few minutes into it. What was being sung by Don Carlo as the alarm went off?

This is how one builds a fire in time of war.
The sparks flew from these pebbles and now the flames leap up.
Soldiers say such flames foretell victory or love
I wish I could build you a little fire!

Don Carlo #4 was interrupted a few minutes before the end. What was being sung by Elisabetta as the alarm went off?

Yes the heroism is this and its sacred flame!
The worthy love of those, the love that sets the strong afire.

I must suspect that the saboteur is extremely knowledgeable about opera.

We deplore the act of this small-t terrorist who has put his own petty concerns above the safety and enjoyment of so many people. We hope the perpetrator is found and thrown into whatever twenty-first-century equivalent of an auto-da-fé causes him the most anguish.

Leah Garchik mentions this theory, along with Joe Montana's visit, in her column in the S.F.Chronicle on November 11.