I was not normally involved in "Carmen" but Kleiber asked me to be available backstage for the second act when Don José is heard approaching, singing the difficult unaccompanied "Dragoon of Alcalà". He said that he knew from experience that tenors were apt to wander off key a trifle at this point and I was to keep close to Edgar Evans, playing the tune on the clarinet but very softly and an octave higher: apparently in this way it could not be heard in the front of the house. I do not know of any other conductor who did this, although it must have lessened the strain for the singer considerably. << less