‘It's like Squid Game': overheated opera singers faint on stage
Unions representing singers at Verona's open-air arena said performances this week of Verdi's Aida and Nabucco were more like a dystopian television show in which the stars were risking their lives for entertainment.
'Performers have the feeling they are taking part in Squid Game, the series in which almost all the participants in a competition meet a nasty end,' the unions stated, referring to the South Korean Netflix hit.
Verona has been placed on alert this week as temperatures soar above 30C, and by 10pm, when shows at the city's ancient Roman amphitheatre take place, have dropped only as far as 29C. A source of grief for performers has been the daring costumes designed for performances of Nabucco, which feature astronaut helmets and wearable LED lights.
'The lights weigh 10kg, they cut into my shoulders and I needed to wear a towel underneath them,' one singer told Corriere della Sera. 'And I need to sing, with a helmet, cape and visor on. It's inhumane. The stage is searingly hot and the costumes are so rigid they force you to sing with your chin up.'
Unions reported that after a performance of Nabucco on Saturday, four performers sought medical attention due to the heat. Heavy costumes worn during performances of Aida were also fuelling discontent, they said. A singer fainted on stage during a performance on Sunday and two others needed to be seen by a doctor after the show.
Stefano Trespidi, the personnel director at the arena, said that from this Sunday, performers would wear wristbands monitoring their pulse rates, and layers of costumes could be removed depending on the temperature. 'The wellbeing of our staff is priority,' he said.
As Italy swelters through the European heatwave, regional governors have ordered outdoor manual labour to halt during the hottest hours of the day after one worker in Emilia-Romagna died of possible heat stroke.
But unions said the Verona Arena had yet to step in to help opera singers buckled into hefty costumes in the evenings and demanded health inspectors pay a visit.
Formerly used for gladiator battles in the Roman era, the venue today can host 15,000 opera fans and staged a performance of Aida in 1953 with live elephants, horses and camels. The authorities have considered covering it with an awning to keep rain off but have not figured out how to cool it down.
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