Upper West Side & Morningside Heights

Arts & Entertainment

The Show Must Go On, Minutes After Met Opera Star Delivers Son

April 10, 2011 12:28pm | Updated April 10, 2011 12:27pm
Juan Diego Forez with wife Julia Trappe Florez.
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Karel Navarro/AP Images

By Adam Nichols

DNAinfo News Editor

UPPER WEST SIDE — The show must go on — even for performers who helped their wife give birth just minutes before curtain call.

Peruvian opera singer Juan Diego Florez assisted with the delivery of his first child in his Manhattan apartment Saturday, then rushed to the Met in time to sing in Rossini's comic opera "Le Compte Ory," reported the Associated Press.

The 38-year-old tenor joined two midwives to help his wife, Julia, give birth to Leandro just 35 minutes before the curtain went up at 1 p.m.

"I gave the baby to Julia," he said in an interview during the live Sirius XM broadcast of the performance.

"I was so sad to leave."

Julia and Leandro are doing well in St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital.



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