One of the big moments for the audience are singers canceling at the last minute. Then the tension often becomes unbearable. Cancellation or replacement? With a little luck, someone will be found who will sing a part from the side that someone else is playing. So now also in Bayreuth, where the chief critic Beckmesser in the Wagner “Meistersinger” had to give up last-minute indisposed, and his substitute Bo Skovhus took over at the very last minute. The festival leaders around Katharina Wagner are said to have trembled, the audience was satisfied. Bo Skovhus is a singer who sees the most complicated world premieres as an appropriate challenge and who, unusual for an opera singer, likes to give recitals. Skovhus comes from Denmark, but made his debut as Mozart’s master woman seducer Don Giovanni in Vienna in 1988. He lives there because he was married to a Viennese woman. Although he speaks perfect German, nobody takes the Viennese from this Viking giant. Skovhus is one of those baritone singers who never pleasantly remind of the master singer Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. He has wit, refreshing sobriety and a voice that moves smoothly through all ranges, colors and nuances. Skovhus, who sings pretty much anything his voice has to offer, never needs to compete for the audience. He appears, sings and wins, but this victory is always an exhilarating musical one.