Richard Tucker

Early life

Tucker was born Rivn (Rubin) Ticker in Brooklyn, New York, the youngest of five surviving children of Bessarabian Jewish parents who immigrated to the US in 1911. His father, Ysruel (Sam) Ticker, and mother Fanya-Tsipa (Fanny) Ticker resisted using the anglicized "Tucker" their children adopted, but by the time their youngest son entered first grade, he was registered under the surname Tucker. His musical aptitude was discovered early, and was nurtured under the tutelage of Samuel Weisser at the Tifereth Israel synagogue in Lower Manhattan. As a teenager, Tucker's interests alternated between athletics, at which he excelled during his school years, and singing for weddings and bar mitzvahs as a cantorial student. Eventually, he progressed from a part-time cantor at Temple Emanuel in Passaic, New Jersey, to full-time cantorships at Temple Adath Israel in the Bronx and, in June 1943, at the large and prestigious Brooklyn Jewish Center. Until then, Tucker's income derived mainly from his weekly commissions as a salesman for the Reliable Silk Company in Manhattan's garment district.

On February 11, 1936, Tucker married Sara Perelmuth, the youngest child (and only daughter) of Levi and Anna Perelmuth, proprietors of the Grand Mansion, a kosher banquet hall in Manhattan's Lower East Side. At the time of Tucker's wedding to their daughter, the Perelmuths' musically gifted eldest son, Yakob, had progressed from a part-time jazz violinist and lyric tenor vocalist to a national radio star who had already set his sights on an operatic career. Under the management of Sol Hurok, the eldest of the Perelmuth offspring, now renamed Jan Peerce, reached his goal when the general manager of the Metropolitan Opera Company, Edward Johnson, offered him a contract after an impressive audition. When Peerce made his much-acclaimed debut at the Met on November 29, 1941, his sister and her new husband were living with Peerce's parents.

Operatic career

Although Peerce remained skeptical of Tucker's singing talent and did not overtly encourage his operatic ambitions (which was one cause of an unfortunate rift between the two brothers-in-law and their families, which apparently was never completely healed), Peerce did play a role in introducing Tucker to conductor and arranger Zavel Zilberts, who coached Tucker until he came to the attention of Paul Althouse, a notable tenor whose long operatic career had begun during the reign of Enrico Caruso at the Met. Althouse became Tucker's only teacher. Contrary to his teacher's advice, Tucker entered the Metropolitan Opera's "Auditions of the Air" in 1943, but did not win. When Met general manager Edward Johnson came unannounced to the Brooklyn Jewish Center to hear Tucker sing, however, Johnson offered the tenor another audition and soon awarded him a contract. On January 25, 1945, under the baton of Emil Cooper, Tucker made his debut as Enzo Grimaldo in La Gioconda. This debut, one of the most successful in the annals of the Met, heralded Tucker's 30-year career as the leading American tenor of the Met's postwar era.

Two years after his Metropolitan debut, Tucker was invited to reprise his success in La Gioconda at the amphitheater in Verona, Italy, for which the retired tenor and Verona native, Giovanni Zenatello, had also engaged the young Maria Callas. Two years later, in 1949, Tucker's rapidly ascending career was confirmed when Arturo Toscanini engaged Tucker to sing the role of Radames for the NBC broadcasts of a complete concert performance of Aida opposite Herva Nelli in the title role, an event heard and seen on radio and television, and eventually released on LP, CD, VHS, and DVD. This was one of the first complete opera performances ever broadcast on national television.

In the ensuing years, Tucker's vocal style evolved into a lirico-spinto voice. If his signature stylistic devices, especially his affection for Italianate sobs, were not always lauded by the critics, his technique, diction, and pronunciation were acclaimed. “For me, Richard Tucker was, and always will be, an ‘Italian’ tenor,” Luciano Pavarotti wrote in the foreword to the authorized biography by James A. Drake. “Like Jussi Bjoerling, he proved that one does not have to be Italian-born in order to win the critics and public.” A profusion of legendary tenors including Jussi Björling, Giuseppe Di Stefano, Mario Del Monaco (and, eventually, Jan Peerce) came and went during the tenure of Rudolf Bing as general manager of the Metropolitan. Tucker remained a dominant tenor in the industry and continued to take on new challenges. Although seen as an unremarkable actor throughout most of his career, Tucker made a strong impression with veteran critics when he reconceived the role of Canio in Pagliacci under the direction of Franco Zeffirelli in January 1970. The tenor was nearly 60 years old at the time.

Death

On January 8, 1975, Tucker died unexpectedly from a heart attack at age 61 in his hotel room in Kalamazoo, Michigan; he was on a national concert tour with his close friend, baritone Robert Merrill. His funeral was held on January 10 on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House, the only singer in the history of the company ever to be so honored.

Legacy

Shortly after his death, the Richard Tucker Music Foundation was established by his widow, sons, colleagues, and friends, "to perpetuate the memory of America's greatest tenor through projects in aid of gifted young singers." In the intervening decades, the Richard Tucker Foundation, whose annual televised concerts have been hosted by Luciano Pavarotti and others, has consistently awarded the largest vocal-music grants and scholarships. Recipients, the first of whom was Rockwell Blake, include sopranos Renée Fleming, Deborah Voigt, mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard, tenors Richard Leech, Stephen Costello, James Valenti, Michael Fabiano and other opera singers of international renown.

In tribute to his legacy at the Met, the city of New York designated the park adjacent to Lincoln Center as Richard Tucker Square.