Opera fan stuns everyone by joining a performance midway but advises others not to do the same

A member of the audience jumping onto the stage and singing along with a renowned artist is the ultimate fan moment which sounds like a scene right out of a movie. But this dream turned into a reality for a man named Lia Jianwei when he was attending opera singer Lisette Oropesa's performance of "Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata" at the Teatro Regio di Parma in Italy. According to Classic FM, the Cuban American soprano Oropesa was onstage delivering her solo performance and 24-year-old Jianwei saw the perfect opportunity to harmonize with her.

Jianwei, who was a student at the Conservatorio Giuseppe Nicolini di Piacenza, was familiar with the lyrics and was perfectly capable of singing the portion of the song meant for the male lead. During her performance, Oropesa sang four encores and the last song was her rendition of “Sempre Libera," which originally featured a male tenor who would have performed from backstage. When Jianwei realized that there was no one accompanying Oropesa from the backstage, he decided to step up. “I stood up to sing because Lisette Oropesa is a musician I love very much and I happened to have learned this opera before,” he told the outlet. Oropesa smiled and acknowledged Jianwei when he hit the second bar of the song.

When the video was reposted on the Chinese social media platform Weibo, the community hailed Jianwei as a "hero" for turning the performance into an unplanned duet. According to the news outlet, Jianwei explained himself and warned others to not do something like this as it may not be received nicely by fellow audience members and performers in most cases. “I stood up to sing because Lisette Oropesa is a musician I love very much and I happened to have learned this opera before,” he added. “It is definitely not something worthy of pride, nor something worthy of being advocated. Please don’t interrupt singers when they are singing on stage. It’s impolite behavior. Don’t imitate me and I will never do this again in the future.”

Jianwei apologized to Oropesa after her performance was over and she was gracious enough to take a selfie with him and give him her autograph. Oropesa became one of the most celebrated opera artists of her generation after she graduated from the young artist program in 2008, according to her website. The video was originally shared on TikTok by another Los Angeles-based opera singer @babatunde_hiphopera. Viewers in the comment section appreciated Jianwei's talent and the confidence that he displayed while singing the tenor's part.

@firefist_sensei commented, "She thought she was gonna have to solo it the whole way! She was already tired from the previous encores." @candyslashthekiller wrote, "I honestly think that is the sort of thing that every opera singer lowkey loves though is something special like that happening." @sketch_93 shared, "I kinda did this once too (it was rehearsed) and it's so much fun when the audience doesn't expect it an all the heads turn towards you in surprise." @katsbreeze noted, "I like the clip where the person with the camera pans around and you can see the student way in the back. He did not throw away his shot!"

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