It was a delay of operatic proportions, but Ben Heppner and Deborah Voigt finally sang together in a complete performance of Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, after illness kept two of the world's top Wagner performers separated.

The duo's appearance on Friday night earned them three curtain calls and eight minutes of applause from an ecstatic audience at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.

Canadian tenor Ben Heppner, right, and Deborah Voigt appear in Friday's final performance of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
(Frank Franklin II/ Associated Press)

The Wagner opera is considered one of the most challenging for a tenor, and Canadian Heppner is regarded as one of the world's top Wagnerian performers along with soprano Voigt. Yet, the two had never appeared together in a full Wagner production.

Because of an infection, Heppner had to bow out before the first of a scheduled six performances at the Met. He missed the first four performances.

Then on the first night, Voigt had to exit the stage halfway through the second act because of a stomach virus.

The performance series was starting to feel a little more doomed when Heppner's replacement, Gary Lehman, slid off the stage one night after a piece of the scenery came loose.  The performance was stopped for about 15 minutes.

While Heppner returned on Tuesday, Voigt was still recovering from her ailment.

There was some trepidation in the 4,000-strong audience prior to Friday night's staging. Groans could be heard when Thomas Connell III, the Met's production stage manager, walked on stage. 

Connell announced that Margaret Jane Wray, who had been scheduled to sing Brangaene, was ill and would be replaced by Michelle DeYoung.

Then, the 5-hour, 15-minute performance went ahead, streamed on the Met's website.