Lebanon, Ill.-based soprano Christine Brewer may have blown out her knee, but her voice is just fine — and she was once again the go-to replacement for an ailing soprano in a big sing, this time with the Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra.

Writes Brewer,

Had an interesting weekend … Charles MacKay (the longtime Opera Theatre of St. Louis chief who now heads Santa Fe Opera) called me on Friday night to see if I might make a quick trip to Santa Fe to replace Kallen Esperian who got laryngitis during a Verdi Requiem rehearsal on Friday afternoon. The Santa Fe Symphony was celebrating their 25th anniversary this weekend.

I had just come from the doctor on Friday afternoon and felt like a million bucks .. the best I’ve felt in weeks. The physical therapy has been wonderful. So I agreed to give my manager’s number to the executive director of the Orchestra. We worked out the details and I flew out on Saturday morning.

Got delayed in Dallas for about three hours because of weather (an hour of that was sitting on the tarmac during the worst part of the storm) Long story short, I got to the Lensic Theatre at 6:00 p.m. when the concert was to have begun … They gave me a half hour to warm up, get dressed and we did the concert! Did another one yesterday afternoon. All went well, but I have to say that my knee is tired tonight. I see the physical therapists tomorrow morning so they’ll whip me back into shape!

Brewer says she’s still planning to sing the title role in Gluck’s Alceste this summer at Santa Fe — and, she says, “I was especially happy to learn that the set isn’t raked!” After all the painful physical therapy on her knee, she doesn’t want to blow it again with another raked stage.

(Brewer will be interviewed on-air at approximately 6 p.m. Saturday on the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s radiothon on KFUO, 99.1 FM, preceding the SLSO’s live performance of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony.)