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Witness History: BBC Proms: Audience Member Rescues Concert

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BBC Proms: Audience Member Rescues Concert

07/09/2017 GMT

BBC World Service - Witness History, BBC Proms: Audience Member Rescues Concert

When the principal singer collapsed, a member of the audience took over his role.

When the principal singer collapsed during a live broadcast of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana in August 1974, a member of the audience stepped forward to sing the rest of the piece.

In 1974 during a live broadcast of Carl Orff's, Carmina Burana as part of the BBC classical music season  'The Proms', the principal baritone singer collapsed into the orchestra pit in a dead faint.  A member of the audience stepped forward to sing the rest of the piece.  Patrick McCarthy had only just graduated from music school, but became something of a national hero when he rescued the show.  He describes the night he saved The Proms at The Albert Hall in London to Rebecca Kesby for Witness. 

(PHOTO: Patrick McCarthy outside The Albert Hall, London 1974.  Getty Images)

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