A young opera enthusiast went forward to be the Alfredo to the renowned soprano’s Violetta during her Verdi recital, leaving her speechless.

Young Verdi admirer bravely went up and performed the tenor part from the audience when he saw his favorite soprano soloist was performing without a duet partner.

As an encore for her performance at the Verdi Festival in Parma, Italy, renowned operatic soprano Lisette Oropesa sang Violetta’s ‘Sempre Libera’ (Always Free) from Verdi’s La Traviata.

The tenor portraying Alfredo is typically off stage during the opera’s staging, as if he were singing to Violetta from beneath her balcony outside.

No tenor was present because this was a solo presentation. The Cuban-American soprano’s longtime admirer Liu Jianwei, a student at the Conservatorio Giuseppe Nicolini di Piacenza, was present to see the concert.

He made the decision to join in during the second bar because no male singer answered to Oropesa’s Violetta in the first.

As a young tenor fan contributed his voice to Oropesa’s recital, her expression was a picture. While Violetta’s spellbound ‘Oh!’ is included in the original score (see above), Oropesa’s ‘Grazie’ was specifically written for this unexpected moment.

On Chinese social media, Liu has been hailed as a ‘hero’for offering the tenor part from the rear of the auditorium.

I stood up to sing because Lisette Oropesa is an artist I love very much, and I just so happened to have learnt this opera before,’ Liu wrote on Weibo after his performance went viral.

He did, however, add that he wouldn’t take the chance of repeating this singing again. Liu said in a video that ‘it is clearly not something worthy of pride, nor something worthy of being encouraged.’

Please refrain from interjecting when performers are singing on stage. It’s rude behavior,’ he continued. ‘Don’t copy me, and I won’t repeat this in the future,’

Liu went to apologize to Oropesa after the concert, and she seemed really appreciative of her impromptu duet partner, signing his autograph and taking pictures with him (see below).

Since then, the video has been shared widely on social media. Babatunde Hiphopera, a popular TikTok user and opera singer, attracted 1 million views to his video on the app with the caption: ‘Friendly caution, do not attempt this with other sopranos.’

Since then, there has been a huge demand for the whole performance footage, which you can view excerpts of below.