Richard Tucker

Richard Tucker

Richard Tucker was one of the greatest tenors to ever sing for the Metropolitan Opera.  He was also an orthodox Jewish cantor.  He ranked as one the best.  I have one of his recordings of a Passover Seder, tremendous!   He was definitely a role model for me when I sang.  Everything that he was as an opera singer/cantor, I wanted to be when I sang.

When I lived in Cleveland, Ohio, the Metropolitan Opera would come every year for a week.  If Richard Tucker came, I was sure to be there.  His renditions of standard operas were superb.  I knew that as a cantor, he was committed to God also.

I read a story about him having to do with a certain conductor. Because he sang in other opera houses, such as La Scalla, in Milan, Italy, he refused to work with a conductor who was known to be a Nazi sympathizer.  He asked for someone else, and the opera house changed conductors.

Richard Tucker died of a heart attack at the height of his career.  Not only was he one of
the world's greatest tenors, but a man of compassion and conviction.

Picture originally found here

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