The swan that dived into the orchestra pit in last week's Freiburg Lohengrin has been relieved of his duties following complaints from disgruntled theatregoers, orchestra members and animal activists. It has not yet been decided who or what his replacement will be. His handler says he was perfect in rehearsals and blames the incident on the chorus, who she says approached him too quickly.
Theatre management don't want to risk another incident, so 25 live chickens signed up to debut in Elfriede Jelinek's play Winterreise on Saturday have also been given the bird. Ironically, their purpose was to represent uncontrollability.
