The announcement of Ben Heppner's retirement took me back more than twenty-five years to June of 1988 when a tenor I had never heard auditioned for me. We were planning a new production of Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nuernberg, and he, described as an heroic tenor, had just been named a finalist in the Metropolitan Opera's National Auditions. When I heard his "Am stillen Herd"---even in a … [Read more...]
Speight Jenkins on the art of Opera
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