Opera singer stunned as young fan in the audience stands up to sing the missing tenor’s part

Opera performances are an excellent amalgamation of musical drama and visual artistry, making them an incredibly immersive and enriching experience. For star soprano Lisette Oropesa, her Verdi performance at the Teatro Regio di Parma onstage in Italy turned out to be a unique affair after she was assisted by a young fan, who boldly stood up in the audience and sang a vital part of her song, per Classic FM.

It all started when acclaimed Lisette Oropesa was singing Violetta's "Sempre Libera" (Always Free) from Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata as an encore for her recital. It is meant to be sung in a duet by a male and female singer. She sang four encores, with the last one having a male tenor. In the opera’s staging, the tenor playing Alfredo is usually off stage, as if he were singing to Violetta from beneath her balcony outside.

Since her performance was a solo recital, no tenor was present. Present among the crowd was Liu Jianwei, a student at the Conservatorio Giuseppe Nicolini di Piacenza and a long-time fan of the Cuban-American soprano, who was there to watch the epic performance. The fan was familiar with the lyrics and noticed no accompaniment in the first bar, so he joined. Since no male singer responded to Oropesa’s Violetta in the first bar, he took matters into his own hands and joined in during the second bar.

Oropesa was stunned to discover the surprise entrant as her young tenor fan lent his voice to her recital. To keep it spontaneous, Oropesa continued her performance and staged a dramatic entranced "Oh!" followed by a "Grazie," which was an original addition to this surprise moment.

After the surprise appearance at the recital, Liu spoke about his love for the artist and said, "I stood up to sing because Lisette Oropesa is a musician I love very much and I happened to have learned this opera before.” At the same time, he admitted that he would not risk pulling a singing stunt like this again. "It is definitely not something worthy of pride, nor something worthy of being advocated." He politely conveyed a message to the audience, "Please don’t interrupt singers when they are singing on stage. It’s impolite behavior. Don’t imitate me and I will never do this again in the future."

After the concert, Liu apologized to Oropesa for his intrusive act during her performance. Surprisingly, Oropesa was not miffed with his fan and instead appeared grateful to her impromptu duet partner. The opera singer was happy to take pictures with him and give him an autograph. 

The video was uploaded on TikTok by a user named @babatunde_hiphopera and it went viral with over 1 million views. TikTok users appreciated the young fan for his efforts and congratulated him for assisting the star. 

You can follow @babatunde_hiphopera on TikTok for similar wholesome content.

Editor's note: This article was originally published on April 30, 2024. It has since been updated.