Our "God's gift to women" baritone had an excellent voice and sang the occasional comprimario role as well as chorus, but he was lazy and simply refused to learn his lyrics.

Because he did have a good voice and was a tall handsome guy, the company put up with his stumbling through lyrics at times, but it all came to a head during our dress rehearsal for Rigoletto.

"Alan" was singing Count Ceprano and he muffed his part during the Duke's party scene in Act 1. As you know, Ceprano's part isn't large but it's important to set the plot in motion.

Maestro stopped the rehearsal piano and started again, twice, but the 3rd time that Alan forgot his lines and simply stood there, maestro threw a tantrum. He was conducting right at the front of the stage and he yelled at the top of his lungs at Alan "I'm damn tired of your screwups! You're costing the company time. Everyone else here has learned the part and you're costing these people dearly!"

Maestro then threw his baton across the room, picked up the score from his stand, threw it, and then threw the stand, too.

Our company manager stepped up and told everyone to "take ten". Alan's face was red and he was humiliated (and perhaps he deserved it). But it was a difficult moment for the whole company while the anger in the air cooled off.