Legendary tenor Jose Carreras at the last minute canceled a concert at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in Seoul on Sunday, citing health problems.
The concert was called off 30 minutes after it was set to begin and the audience was sent home and given their money back. Carreras completed his scheduled concert on Saturday.
A spokesman for Pop Communication, which organized the concert, said the elderly troubadour contracted laryngitis.
The 2,000-strong audience were largely supportive. One audience member said, "I'm concerned about Carreras' health. I hope he gets well for his next performance."
Carreras (67) famously battled Leukemia in the 1980s. He was last scheduled to perform in Korea in 2011 but canceled with only a week to go.
But the organizers have been criticized for inconsiderate behavior. One person who claimed to have been among the audience posted a message on the Internet saying, "There are rumors that he was in no condition to go on stage, but the organizers prodded him to sing. This is why the cancellation notice came so late as the singer waited to see if he would feel better."
The organizers told the audience during Saturday's concert that Carreras had caught a cold.
In a strange confluence of events, across town the even more revered tenor Placido Domingo was performing to an audience of 10,000 people. The two frequently shared a stage during the massive Three Tenors galas, the third being Luciano Pavarotti.
Classical music fans say it was a hard choice which concert to attend, which is why they felt even more disappointed about the cancellation. A quarter of some 2,750 tickets at the Carreras event were sold as "VIP seats" for a whopping W440,000 (US$1=W1,114).
This is the second time this year that a globally famous singer has canceled a concert here. Paul McCartney was set to give his first concert in Korea in April of this year, but that fell through, also for health reasons. A viral infection also forced the 72-year-old ex-Beatle to cancel concerts in Korea and Japan.
Some prefer singers to cancel in advance rather than give abysmal performances of the kind some superstars have put up here.
Pop diva Mariah Carey bombed in her first concert in 11 years in Seoul, angering fans. She later blamed bad health. The concert started 20 minutes late and she had trouble hitting the high notes for which she is widely admired and parodied.
Whitney Houston also disappointed audiences in Korea with her first and last performance here in 2010. Already ravaged by years of drug addiction, Houston coughed through the concert and her heavy breathing rattled the sound system.
