BlogBacks: Jerry Hadley’s Friends Take Issue with the Critics

Yesterday’s BlogBack on CultureGrrl by Denver music critic Marc Shulgold (in which he defended tough critical appraisals and took issue with my post on the possible role that reviews played in tenor Jerry Hadley‘s suicide) struck the raw nerves of at least two of his grieving friends.
Before I share their comments with you, let me clear up some confusion, which was evident in the e-mails I received from each of these correspondents: Shulgold’s views are not my views on the sensitive issue of whether critics can sometimes go too far in their negative appraisals of artists. But I respect the many critics who, I’m sure, disagree with me on this. I wanted to air the opposite side of this thorny question.
In About Last Night today, my fellow AJ blogger Terry Teachout takes issue with me directly and addresses the larger issue: In response to the angry reactions he received to this post (in which he quoted from his own highly negative 1999 appraisal of Hadley for Time magazine), he observed that “the critics who wrote of [Hadley’s] vocal difficulties in 1999 were only reporting well after the fact what was common knowledge in the opera world. The damage had already been done, and I’m sure he knew it.”
Here are the reactions to Shulgold’s BlogBack by two who knew Hadley and took his death very personally.
—Alexander Frey, a conductor and pianist, writes:
I was probably Jerry Hadley’s best male friend. We gave concerts in Europe and the United States, shared an apartment together a few summers ago and he stayed at my place in Berlin when here. We helped each other through various crisis. We had been through the fire together.
Jerry and I were preparing to record three new recital compact discs this coming season. We were rehearsing the past couple of seasons whenever our schedules permitted. The repertoire was very difficult, but I knew, really knew, that these recordings would be the definitive performances of those pieces. Jerry was in excellent voice in our rehearsals. Even though he was one of my dearest friends, I can still view his work objectively as a musician.
He became Leonard Bernstein’s favorite tenor with whom to work. Bernstein told me that Jerry was the greatest American tenor. Great conductors are very particular about the singers with whom they perform and record. Bernstein choose Jerry above all other tenors to perform the title role in his own “Candide” (also featured on DVD and CD). In addition, he was one of the favorite musical partners of such conductors as Lorin Maazel, Sir Charles Mackerras, John Mauceri, Michael Tilson Thomas, Kent Nagano, and Kurt Masur. They frequently choose him to perform and record with them.
I think that is proof enough that Jerry Hadley wasn’t a “nice tenor,” [as Shulgold called him] but a great one.
—Christine Mullin, another friend of Hadley (who sang at her wedding), writes:
Those of us who knew Jerry and, like myself, grew up with him in our little rural community of Manlius, Ill., admired him for what he was able to accomplish and the obstacles he was able to overcome to do what he did.
Jerry’s “job” was to enlighten and entertain. The critic’s job can be one of eating a performer alive and some have a voracious appetite! Those in the media plant false evidence, imply, subtly infer and sensationalize to incriminate or assassinate, as part of their job. When do journalists put the brakes on, or step back, or draw the line? Journalism, in general, has lost a lot of its dignity and pulled many of its victims down with it.
Both critics and the performer work in the most vicious, exposed industries, aside from politics, and some critics choose to perpetuate that viciousness, turning off those of us that do have some empathy, compassion and some personal sense of dignity.
Jerry gave the music world a great deal and could have done so much more. As I’ve been reminded recently, we must try to remember the good times!