O.C. MUSIC / BENJAMIN EPSTEIN : Lend Me a Tenor . . . or a Soprano . . . or a Conductor : It’s an impresario’s worst nightmare: Trying to find an alternate who can perform the material and who is available and affordable.

When the soprano soloist scheduled to appear in concerts last week with the Pacific Symphony became ill, a replacement had been found virtually by the time the orchestra was notified of the cancellation--with four days to spare.

Executive director Louis G. Spisto noted that Virginia Sublett, the replacement for Young-Ok Shin, “was on the roster of (Shin’s) agent, she’d sung with the Pacific Symphony before, the music was in her repertory, she was available, she could make the first rehearsal, and she was within the fee we were offering.”

“This,” he added, “is not always the case.”

Indeed not.

Earlier this month, for instance, Opera Pacific executive director David DiChiera endured what he considers the greatest casting challenge of his career during the company’s run of Wagner’s “Die Walkure.”

“Casting Wagner’s operas is a tremendous challenge to begin with,” DiChiera said. “Finding a last-minute replacement is an impresario’s worst nightmare.

“The day before our second performance, Mechthild Gessendorf, our Sieglinde, asked to be excused from the performance due to a worsening cold.

“Your first reaction is for the artist’s well-being. Your second reaction is, ‘How can I find a replacement at this late date?’ ”

DiChiera needed to locate an artist who: knew the role, which entails nearly 2 1/2 hours of singing over a 71-piece orchestra; was not currently engaged by another company, at a time when nearly every opera company was in mid-season; and was able to fly in, learn the production’s staging and perform 24 hours later.

“We called agents and opera companies trying to find a singer who could meet nearly impossible requirements,” DiChiera said. “As you know, we found one. Wednesday night, Leslie Morgan arrived and rehearsed with the conductor. Thursday she worked with the production staff to learn the staging. At 7 that same night, she made her entrance--and saved the day.”

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In the same production, Jane Eaglen stepped in for Ealynn Voss, who withdrew for personal reasons, as Brunnhilde. Though not an emergency given the amount of notice, neither of the singers first signed to the roles of Wotan and Hunding ultimately appeared, and in fact, only one of the originally signed principals performed all dates for which they were contracted.

Tough run.

Even musicians are human, however, and subject to human frailties. That can mean illness or, in some cases, whim. It can mean the death of loved ones, or the birth: Also this month, L.A. Philharmonic music director Esa-Pekka Salonen relinquished conductorial duties to rush his pregnant wife to the hospital; she delivered minutes before the concert began.

The Pacific Symphony maintains an “understudy” in the form of an assistant conductor; the L.A. Philharmonic is presently searching for one. But who can afford to pay two sets of zhigh-caliber soloists on a regular basis? Only an elite handful of opera companies, e.g., the Metropolitan Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago.

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Tough as Opera Pacific’s “Die Walkure” was, things could be worse. A replacement might not be found. Or you might have to replace the 71-piece orchestra.

“Any day of the week I’d rather be faced with replacing a soprano than a whole orchestra,” commented Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra executive director Erich Vollmer, and former chief of the Orange County Philharmonic Society.

OCPS education director JoAnn Fuerbringer ticked off a catalogue of just such disappointments, and then some, in recent seasons.

“The L.A. Philharmonic canceled during the riots,” Fuerbringer said. The City of Birmingham Symphony “canceled because they didn’t have enough money to tour. Same with Vancouver Symphony, which was going to open our season. (Pianist) Andre Watts called in sick. (Pianist) Ivo Pogorelich, who was scheduled right after the Gulf War began, decided it was dangerous to fly” and canceled.

In lieu of Vancouver, the OCPS contracted the Prague Chamber Orchestra, and Santiago Rodriguez pinch-hit for Pogorelich. For the remaining events, staff members tried to notify subscribers by phone, via radio announcements and even by word of mouth at the parking structure entrances.

“We offer tickets to comparable events, but (people are) never happy, especially if it’s an orchestra or soloist they’ve been longing to see,” Fuerbringer said. “If they want their money back, we give it to them.”

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Vollmer admitted that defining “comparable events” can be tricky.

“You’re hard-pressed to always come up with somebody of equal stature, especially when you’re talking about Pogorelich or Watts, but certainly there’s a sea of wonderful artists out there,” he said. “You don’t try to pretend Rodriguez has the same celebrity as Pogorelich, but I’m not sure if the musical product wasn’t as wonderful.”

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While soprano Sublett had been able to arrange an earlier flight home to Southern California from an engagement in Arkansas to accommodate the Pacific Symphony, she shared a story that underscored how complicated logistics can be.

“A tenor friend performing an opera here in the U.S. got a call from his agent saying they needed him in Australia--literally yesterday,” Sublett said. “He spent one whole day getting flights to Los Angeles in order to get a flight to Australia. His wife was also away, and she had to fly back to the house to FedEx him his passport.

“But speak with producers--they’re the ones who actually have the nightmares. In the case of (Mozart’s) C-minor Mass, there are people like me around who have done it. When it’s (Pierre) Boulez, that becomes a lot more questionable.”

Or when it’s Henryk Gorecki, as happened last summer at the Hollywood Bowl: soprano Christine Brewer filled in for appendicitis-stricken Joanna Kozlowska, singing the substantial solo role for the West Coast premiere of the composer’s Symphony No. 3 with the L.A. Philharmonic.

“Cancellations are part of our life,” said Anne Parsons, general manager of the Hollywood Bowl. “The only question is, is there someone who knows the work and is available as opposed to somebody who is willing to learn it.” Brewer, as it happened, was already learning the Gorecki piece for a fall performance.

But two years ago, the Pacific Symphony enlisted a substitute who had never seen the music to one of the works to be performed. The program, featuring Beethoven’s “Choral Fantasy”’ and Mendelssohn’s Concerto No. 1, had been built around a pianist who had become ill.

According to Spisto, music director Carl St.Clair began leaving messages for pianist Benjamin Pasternack at 3 a.m.; Pasternack phoned back at 6 a.m. and boarded a flight that morning.

“He’d performed the Mendelssohn, though not recently,” Spisto said, “but he actually learned Beethoven’s ‘Choral Fantasy’ on the plane!”

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Orange County Chamber Orchestra music director Micah Levy had a similar experience; the Mozart concerto in question was not among the more often played. “It was very early in my career,” Levy recalled. “I’d only (conducted) one other piano concerto, and didn’t have anything else in my repertory. I was kind of stuck.

“We located a potential replacement two days before the concert, and she already happened to be flying back from a tour in Canada. (Gita Karasik) called me on arrival and said sure, she’d do it, that she’d done it a long time before but never in public.

“The truth was she had never done it,” he said. “She just said that so I wouldn’t be nervous.”