Witness History: Witness Archive 2017 - BBC Proms: Audience Member Rescues Concert

Download BBC Proms: Audience Member Rescues Concert

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)

Published on Wednesday, 6th September 2017.

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