danajohnhill.org | Hard Times Come Again No More

This summer is, by and by, shaping up to be an awful one for opera fans like me. First, we lost Beverly Sills, then, shortly after, Régine Crespin. Last Saturday, on my radio show, I wrapped up my tribute to these two ladies with selections from a Met Lucia with Sills, and Crespin’s legendary Decca disc of Les nuits d’été and Shéhérazade.

This evening I learned that American tenor Jerry Hadley is dying in a hospital in New York state following a suicide attempt. Hadley has had an amazingly successful career, and made many highly-regarded, award winning recordings. I have no fewer than nine discs of his in my personal collection, and I have heard many more in the course of my work.

Tomorrow I expect to pay tribute to him, either via his performance as Candide in the operetta by Leonard Bernstein, or with his outstanding Teldec set of Gounod’s Faust, in which he does something unusual and lovely, by singing the high C in “Salut! demeure chaste et pure” sotto voce. It is sad to read of Mr. Hadley’s tragic demise, especially at his own hand.

Update:  Jerry Hadley has died.  May he rest in peace.

Filed under: Music, Work on July 16th, 2007