Richard Tucker inherited the mantle of Enrico CARUSO as leading tenor at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where, from 1945 to 1975, he appeared in 499 performances at the house (and an additional 225 on tour), in 30 roles. One of the most popular tenors of his time, it is appropriate that Tucker gained the nickname “America’s Caruso.”
The future lyric tenor was born Reuben Ticker in New York City on August 28, 1913. His parents were Jews who had emigrated from Eastern Europe, and Tucker remained conscious of his Jewish heritage throughout his life. As an opera singer, he might be given the role of a monk, but he refused to wear a crucifix. He sang only once in a Christian church—at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, in New York City—for the funeral of Robert Kennedy.
Tucker’s earliest singing experience was as a boy alto in the synagogue choir. Later he entertained at weddings and bar mitzvahs, which, along with work as a tailor in a furrier’s business, helped him to finance his vocal studies with Paul Althouse.
In 1943 Tucker became the cantor of the Brooklyn Jewish Center, with a congregation of 2,000, and that same year made his operatic debut with the Salmaggi Opera, a small company in New York. He entered the Metropolitan Opera auditions but did not do well. Nonetheless, his teacher persuaded Edward Johnson, the general director of the Metropolitan, to attend services at the Jewish Center in order to hear the cantor sing, and a contract was issued enabling Tucker to make his Metropolitan Opera debut in 1945 as Enzio in Ponchielli’s La gioconda.
Even after his operatic career was assured, Tucker continued as an ordained cantor, and in fact recorded the Passover Service. The tenor achieved widespread fame in the U.S. in the 1940s through his radio exposure on the program Chicago Theater of the Air. Tucker’s European debut in 1947 coincided with that of Maria CALLAS when they sang together in La gioconda in Verona.
At this time, Tucker’s voice was what is called lirico spinto (an incisive lyric voice), and he soon added the demanding roles of Rodolfo in Puccini’s La boheme, and Don Jose in Bizet’s Carmen to his repertoire. He hesitated before tackling any Mozart roles, but was successful in Cost fan tutte.
Although dependable and easy to work with, Tucker became well known for carrying out pranks onstage at the Metropolitan, once handing Robert Merrill a casket with a nude picture inside. He was paid back during the death scene in La boheme, when an atrocious pun sent him falling on Mimi’s corpse, shaking with laughter, which the audience interpreted as racking sobs.
As he aged, Tucker’s voice tended more to the dramatic, and he sang in Saint-Saens’ Samson and as Calaf in Puccini’s Turandot. Only weeks before his death he appeared in Leoncavallo’s intensely dramatic L Pagliacci. He had long campaigned for the re-introduction of Halevy’s La juive into the Metropolitan’s repertoire, but as he readied himself to perform in Michigan, he died of a heart attack on January 8, 1975, and the project was abandoned.
Tucker sang at La Scala from 1961, and in Vienna and Covent Garden from 1958. However, he was so closely identified with the Metropolitan Opera that his funeral was held onstage at the opera house. The Richard Tucker Foundation set up in his memory awards $20,000 annually to further the career of a promising young singer.
Jane Prendergast
SEE ALSO: OPERA; VOCAL AND CHORAL MUSIC.
FURTHER READING
Breslin, Herbert H., ed. The Tenors (New York: Macmillan, 1974);
Drake, James A. Richard Tucker: A Biography (New York: Dutton, 1984).
SUGGESTED LISTENING
Tucker at the Met (Donizetti, Verdi, Ponchielli, Puccini);
Puccini: La boheme; II trovatore; Verdi: Laforza del destino.