The Canadian Opera Company (COC) made two last-minute casting changes. It unseated bass-baritone Peteris Eglitis from his role as Wotan, king of the gods, and said the role would be sung by England's Pavlo Hunka. As well, the COC announced that Canadian soprano Frances Ginzer would play Brunnhilde, Wotan's daughter, in one of the three performances of the cycle. In the opening and closing Ring cycles, Brunnhilde would be sung by English soprano Susan Bullock.

COC artistic administrator Philip Boswell broke his right foot. He didn't realize it was broken until last week, when the problem worsened ("I'm saying it was during wild sex," laughs Boswell). On Sept. 14, he took his swollen foot to Mount Sinai Hospital's emergency room and was released 11 hours later in a plaster cast and on crutches.

In the dress rehearsal for Die Walkure, Elizabeth Stannard, one of the Valkyries, caught the train of her dress on the set. She took a bad fall, bruised her ribs and spent eight hours in Mount Sinai emergency. She was not the only walking wounded: Stagehand Mike Gelfand broke his leg (at home), but gamely turned up at Ring rehearsals.

At the end of the first scene in Das Rheingold, a piece of undulating silk (representing the Rhine River) refused to release during a scene change. A stage hand had to walk out across the stage and yank it. In the process, a light was knocked sideways.

During dress rehearsals, Hunka developed what was hoped to be laryngitis, but turned out to be diabetes; Hunka returned to England. On Sept. 12, Wotan/the Wanderer was sung on the Ring cycle's opening-night performance of Das Rheingold by Canadian John Fanning, but was played the next night in Die Walkure by none other than its original singer Peteris Eglitis. Call it Return of the King.

Unlucky 13: Judit Nemeth assured fellow cast members in Die Walkure that she would sing the part of Wotan's neglected wife, the goddess Fricka, despite dental surgery that afternoon. "She thought she could do it right up to 6 p.m., but it was clear to us that her mouth was too swollen," says Boswell. "At 6 p.m., we made the switch for the 7 p.m. curtain." Mezzo-soprano Mary Phillips sang the part beautifully that night. Nemeth is now back and in fine form.

Having fractured her ankle during a vigorous weekend game of tennis, soprano Adrianne Pieczonka was immobilized with her foot in a cast. Rather than bow out of Wednesday's performance of Die Walkure, she sang the role of Sieglinde from the side of the stage, while Irmgard Vilsmaier acted the part.

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