PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Brenda Rae was driving with her husband and children from their home in Minneapolis to visit her father in Appleton, Wisconsin, last Thursday night when her phone rang with an intriguing offer: Could she travel ASAP and take over the lead soprano role in Mozart’s “Mitridate” at Opera Philadelphia's opening night?
Rae said yes and replaced Lauren Snouffer, joining tenor Lawrence Brownlee and countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo on Wednesday
night. She beamed as the audience applauded during curtain calls at the Academy of Music.
“It’s kind of a funny feeling,” Rae said. “It's almost like: What just happened? Or did we really do it?”
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote the opera in 1770 when he was just 14 and gave it the full title of “Mitridate, re di Ponto (king of Pontus).” Brownlee sang the title character, a tyrannical leader who spreads rumors of his death to discover if his sons are in love with his fiancée Aspasia. He tries to kill them all and eventually commits suicide.
Rae was scheduled for a break between the July 18 world premiere of Jake Heggie's “The Judgment of Paris” at Festival Napa Valley and the Sept. 21 start of rehearsals for her role debut next month in Richard Strauss' "Salome" at the Seattle Opera. The 44-year-old had just one previous run as Aspasia, two performances with Brownlee at Boston Lyric Opera in September 2024.
“Mitridate” rehearsals started Aug. 13 and Snouffer's departure was decided last Thursday.
“Everything was a very collaborative decision-making process,” said Costanzo, starting his third season as the company's general director. "I don’t believe in being autonomous in those things unless it’s absolutely necessary and I think we just wanted to make sure that everyone was doing what was best for them.”
Bill Palant, Snouffer’s representative at Étude Arts, declined comment.
Michael Eberhard, Opera Philadelphia's director of casting and artistic administration, had given Rae a call Thursday morning inquiring if she might be available for the run, which included three performances through Sept. 13.
“I kind of had the impression that they wouldn’t need me,” Rae said.
Just in case, she took along her copy of the score to Wisconsin. When she got Eberhard's second call Thursday night asking whether she would commit, Rae said she needed to spend Friday with her dad, her first trip back home since her mother's death last spring.
Philadelphia didn't have cover singers and the company didn't think there was time to get a U.S. visa for a soprano to fly in from Europe. If Rae had said no, Costanzo said the company might have sought a young singer or as a last resort cut the character's four arias and one duet, leaving only Aspasia's recitative.
“It was a scary situation,” Costanzo said.
Rae booked flights Saturday with a connection in Detroit but a cancellation forced her to change planes in Minneapolis.
Rae walked into the Academy of Music just in time for Saturday night's orchestra dress rehearsal and had costume and wig fittings during breaks. Aspasia wore an off-white Oscar de la Renta pantsuit that set and costume designer Kaye Voyce bought on The RealReal online site.
“Anything you need, I'm here for you,” Brownlee remembered telling her. “Thank you for saving the show.”
Sunday included a two-hour musical rehearsal with conductor Corrado Rovaris followed by four hours with director Emma Griffin and assistant Colter Schoenfish. The final dress rehearsal was Monday night and she spent time Tuesday with Grant Loehnig, the opera company's head of music staff, to go over recitative that was different from the version she performed in Boston.
Rae said this switcheroo differed from when she sang the title role in Donizetti's “Lucia di Lammermoor” in 2012 at the Vienna State Opera after Diana Damrau and initial replacement Hibla Gerzmava both got sick.
“I've done jump-ins in the past, but they’ve always been for roles that I’ve done fairly often or at least did a big run of them where I felt like they were more were part of my standard repertoire,” Rae said. “This one has been especially stressful just because it’s a Mozart opera, so there are lots of recitative and just all those words.”
Rae was not living the glamorous life in the hours before opening night. Eberhard arranged housing at the ROOST Midtown hotel near the Academy of Music and for tofu to be delivered to Rae on Saturday night.
By Wednesday, Rae had a common concern before taking the stage.
"I don’t have all my normal singing things," she said. “I just had a little suitcase packed with three changes of clothing, and so I’m doing laundry right now in my apartment because I’ve literally run out of everything.”
