Has a professional musician ever made a major mistake in concert?

[Sequent]

Found it

And at La Scala in Milan…Pavarotti failed to hit the high notes in the second act of “Don Carlos.” His voice cracked.

The applause one heard didn’t come from the loggionisti – those temperamental fans who sat in the upper balconies booed. It’s a reaction Pavarotti almost never received. The occasion was the opening of the opera season before the president of Italy. It was a miserable humiliation.

[Shodan]

Had a music teacher who told a story about doing a performance of Handel’s Messiah. At the very end of the Hallelujah Chorus, just before the final “Amen,” there’s a very significant dramatic rest. During this performance, though, the tympanist was a beat off and crashed down on the kettle drums right in the middle of it! OOPS!!

Ideally, the conductor should then throw down his baton, glare at the orchestra for half a second, and then bark out -

“ALL RIGHT! WHO DID THAT?”

Regards,
Shodan

[Walloon]

@Elendil's Heir

Some great opera star (the name escapes me) wrote in his memoirs about singing in “Swan Lake,” and having the wood-and-canvas swan on which he was to ride out of the scene be pulled offstage too soon by the stagehands. He broke character and asked the audience, “What time does the next swan leave?”

Leo Slezak. But it was Lohengrin; Swan Lake is a ballet.

[minlokwat]

Well I hope I’m not too late for this discussion but here is one from Elvis in the latter stage of his career and a short six weeks before his death.

Link Here

I always felt this clip was more poignant than anything and illustrates how far downward Elvis had spiraled from the performer he once had been yet no longer was and never would be again.

[Walloon]

Despite his forgetting the spoken part of the “Are You Lonesome Tonight”, his singing of the song was note perfect.

[Clothahump]

Consider the example of British actor Richard Harris, who sang the role of King Arthur in Camelot twice a day for seven months. During one performance, Harris forgot the words to a short song in the play. He stopped in mid stride, halted the orchestra and went to the edge of the stage where he said: “Four hundred and twenty-eight performances, and I have forgotten the lyrics! Would you believe it?”

Somebody cued him on the words, the orchestra started again and he finished the musical in fine style. His sympathetic audience gave him the longest applause of the night.

Mortifying Moments

And if you listen to Simon and Garfunkel’s Central Park concert album, they blow the opening to The Boxer.

[Kent_Clark]

One of my fond childhood memories was listening to the Liston-Clay fight on the radio and distinctly hearing Robert Goulet mess up The Star Spangled Banner .

[whistlepig]

@Governor Quinn

Then there are stories about times when the conductor was at fault, such as when Arturo Toscanini, during a live broadcast, mentally slipped up, causing the NBC Symphony Orchestra to go into a halt.

It ended up being his last live work.

This “fumble” is the subject of a book, “Toscanini’s Fumble.” Very broadly described, his career of conducting may have led to the compression of a nerve or blood vessels when he raised his arms, causing a momentary lapse of consiousness.

(It’s been a long time since I read the book.)

[DesertDog]

I don’t know if you could call it a flub or a hybrid, but in the album Chuck Berry Live in Concert there is a track titled Johnny B Goode. Well, the opening riff is JBG but the first verse is Bye Bye Johnny, the lesser known sequel. When he gets to the chorus* Berry gets as far as “Bye b–” when the audience breaks in with the chorus from JBG (Go Johnny, go, go etc.) Berry them sings the second and subsequent verses for JBG with the audience doing the chorus.

Bye bye bye bye
Bye bye bye bye
Goodbye, Johnny B Good (Not his most brilliant lyrics)

[Elendil_s_Heir]

@Walloon

Leo Slezak. But it was Lohengrin; Swan Lake is a ballet.

I stand corrected; thanks.

[Cyberhwk]

@Shodan

Ideally, the conductor should then throw down his baton, glare at the orchestra for half a second, and then bark out -

“ALL RIGHT! WHO DID THAT?”

My sister was in the orchestra of a production of Carmen. At the close of the first act evidently the trumpets missed an entrance and maestro was particularly cranky that day. He yells “YOU GUYS WERE LATE!” forgetting that actually the show was still on and the audience heard every word he said. He was pretty embarrassed.

[jackelope]

@minlokwat

Well I hope I’m not too late for this discussion but here is one from Elvis in the latter stage of his career and a short six weeks before his death.

Link Here

I always felt this clip was more poignant than anything and illustrates how far downward Elvis had spiraled from the performer he once had been yet no longer was and never would be again.

I agree with Walloon; sure, Elvis blew the line, but his singing in that clip shows that he never, even at the end, lost that beautiful voice.

I’d heard that bit on CD before, but never seen the video; on CD, I heard it as the ramblings of a drugged-out zombie, but on video, he looked like a great showman making something from nothing.

(Full disclosure: I’m a big Elvis fan.)

[Sailboat]

The great violinist Paganini was famous for playing concerts with frayed strings, hoping that one would break so that he could show off his ability to rise above the crisis and complete the perfomance. He finished some pieces on only one string.

Sailboat

[Rrose_Selavy]

Isn’t there a clip somewhere from another (I think) concert of Elvis getting a fit of the giggles?

[PunditLisa]

**Britney Spears ** recently stopped lip-synching to her pre-recorded song…

Clothahump beat me to it. I came here to mention **Simon & Garfunkel’s ** opening to The Boxer. I believe Garfunkel also sang the wrong lyrics to “Bridge Over Troubled Water” on the same album. He sang “I will ease your mind” on the second chorus instead of the third.

During “One Night Only” in Las Vegas, **Barry Gibb ** sang one of those “sing a duet with a dead person” things with is brother, Andy, and sang the wrong words to “(Our Love) Don’t Throw it All Away.” He was supposed to sing “And it’s losing you I can’t believe, to watch you leave and let this feeling die.” but he sang, "“But let your love flow back to me, how can you leave and let this feeling die” instead.

I saw Chicago in concert after Peter Cetera left. The band was so out of tune that I spent most of the night cringing. I’ve heard high school bands that sounded better.

[GraceTX]

@Rrose Selavy

Isn’t there a clip somewhere from another (I think) concert of Elvis getting a fit of the giggles?

Yes and it’s also to Are you Lonesome Tonight?. IIRC, he sings “do you gaze at your bald head and wish you had hair?” and it cracks him up.

[Hung_Mung]

There’s a pretty good fuckup on Alice in Chains’ MTV Unplugged performance. It’s not on the cd but it is on the DVD. Layne Staley completely fucked up the words on Sludge Factory. He realizes it just as he sings it and trails the last word sung into an enormous “FUCK!”

He turns around to look at a laughing Jerry Cantrell, the band stops and they take it from the top and nail it. It’s a funny little moment on the DVD.