Sausage plays an important part in our production of AIDA. Amneris, wife of Radamès and daughter of the king, is trying to ease her husband back into real-world domesticity, while he is dreaming about Aida. The scene has her getting his dinner ready, which includes cutting thick slices of sausage. It’s always freshly bought on the day of each performance, but we have a reserve of pre-cut slices in the freezer for emergencies. The actors like to snack on the sausage, and it tends to disappear along with the bread into the cloakrooms and dressing rooms. The roles are often very physical and people get hungry. And the pets of our staff polish off anything left over, depending on their preferences for beef, chicken or turkey flavours. The opera where we get through most sausage, though, is LA BOHÈME. Act 1 features a basket of goodies including a string of sausages and Act 2 calls for twenty pairs of wieners for chorus and extras – all bought fresh on the day, of course. We’ve never had requests for veggie sausage - not that that would be an issue for us.

Amneris distributes the slices of meat sausage © Marcus Lieberenz