WHY WHY WHY did he feel he had to take his own life? What a tragic loss not only to the singing/opera world but to the entire music world! Such a glorious voice and he took it from us too soon,

As a voice teacher, I completely agree with what Hadley is saying here. I loved his statement about "being critical but not being discerning." Brilliant.

What a beautiful voice. What a loss when he passed.

What an intelligent and incredible human. I couldn't have said this info better in a million years.

Jerry Hadley=AWESOME

In a recent German language interview with Christa Ludwig, she pretty much says the same thing. She says there are so many teachers that tell the students, "No, you can't do that, that's wrong," that although the singers sing nicely, they have lost all of their individuality and humanity. She bemoans the fact that she cannot tell one singer apart from another, whereas before, she knew in two or three notes whether it was Callas or Tebaldi or Pavarotti or Domingo. She says that one knew them not just by their virtues but also by their faults, and despite the fault, they were wonderful. Here is the interview: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/eZ6Dp5Oe2Zy6Znk.html

omg preach! PREACH! I am so happy that this was recorded! His legacy is set! sharing this!

This rings true today, 15 years later...We as singers are so blessed to have access to such amazing artists as Jerry Hadley, who wasn't afraid to speak his mind, and who sang so beautifully for us to learn from!

I wish I had heard this years ago when I first starting studying music in University.

Hadley has put a lot of thought into answering the question.

Bravo Maestro. I miss this great singer. Every young singer should listen to this!

This statement from JH carries a significant weight. He's not only eloquent, he speaks with passion and commitment to the vocal art-the history of the art matters. If he's right and a younger generation are ignoring the outstanding singers from the past, then something is seriously amiss in the teaching sphere. When I became interested in voice in the mid 1970's, I started to raid my local record library and listen to the singers who were available to me in that library: these were singers like Pavarotti, Sutherland, Milnes, Domingo, Berganza..... It wasn't until a few years later, as I read more about the history of opera and the celebrated singers, that I began to discover artists like the baritone Giovanni Inghilleri, then Gigli, Schipa, Tettrazinni, and many others through several decades. In recent years (well into my fifties) I'm just discovering Ruffo, Pertle, and so it goes on. So even though JH speaks of his disappointment of some young singers and their ignorance of older singers I think his very commentary in this interview will serve an important purpose. It never too late, perhaps. He is giving anybody who cares to listen, a number of reference points, just like I had from my teacher and from the books I was reading. A simple love of the art is enough to lead somebody towards many vocal treasures! Lastly: I was aware of the ending of JH's life, which made me sad, but I was distant from it. Now, hearing this interview and listening to some of his performances, I feel an even greater sadness and a sense of loss at his ending. A horrible and overwhelmingly painful place to be in.....What a very fine artist he was. At least for music lovers, he has left a legacy. There is always something beautiful and moving in his performances. I give thanks for the Art of Jerry Hadley.

A very important document from a wonderful musician gone to soon. What he could have further contributed to the art of singing!

RIP Jerry Hadley (#dotd in 2007) 🌺🌺🌺

This is pure gold! I couldn't be more agree... I was just thinking in that subject this morning and now I found this incredible audio! Thanks!

There is a parallel to the acting profession here. A great deal of damage to young acting talent has been done by academics in college or university settings. Regrettably, some would be actors think that they can read a book about it and do it. The results are usually grotesque. Having a frame of reference is vital. In opera, students have to depend on recordings to gain an understanding of the great singers of the past. The microphone has changed our perception of singing, just as the camera has changed our understanding of acting. Ask a young baritone if they have ever heard of Mattia Battistini, Riccardo Stracciari; Pasquale Amato; or Giuseppe de Luca. If they haven't heard of Titta Ruffo the problem is worse than we feared. Ask a young acting student if they have heard of Alfred Lunt & Lynn Fontanne; or Laurette Taylor. Past is prologue.

Wow. Great document. Thank you for sharing :). My Music History teacher said: to be a good musician one must listening. Listening is the gold of the art.

thanks for the upload cafiero. My voice teacher at school didn't know who Titta Ruffo was when I asked. He's a baritone.

Brilliant

This info is amazing... Hadley just gave a splendid dissertation of what singing is about.

Finally..an intelligent and knowledgeable singer...and a wonderful one at that...speaks about the detriment of the teaching of singing. Academics in universities have truly limited the singers-to-be with the their lack of "knowing physiologically" how their own instrument needs to be co-ordinated. How the constrictions of the breath and muscles surrounding the vocal cords interfere with the sound. To put it mildly...they use word-noise terminology that really is confusing and meaningless to a talented, young singer. Listening to the great singers recorded since the turn of the last century must be part of their training. This teaches them to discern, how beautiful voices, free of all tensions...(except the few CORRECT ones; cords and solar plexus of the diaphragm) sound. Thank you Jerry Hadley..Bravo !!!

Miss you, Jerry.

He knew what he was talking about.

Such an exceptional singer with masterful technique and thrilling singing , beautiful legato, so underrated and tragic ending....

What an excellent singer and bloody great talk

These are great points that Hadley is trying to get across and I know I'm extremely guilty of everything he's saying. He speaks about how singers, opera singers especially tend to not know the artistry of the music it's self due to negligence on our part for not studying the past greats. That we expect the music it's self what's written down to give us all the answers and to have the same connection ,to perform like the greats even though we haven't studied the artistry of it. It makes amazing sense. He speaks about how you can have the greatest teacher and if you personally don't put in the work or do things on your own which includes studying the past performers, expression, technique and much more there's only so much that teacher can do, that nobody has learned how to sing great by just learning how to sing.(he also speaks about how pedagogy professors just teach voice and the artistry it's self is lessened but once again he defends them by saying there's only so much they can do you have to do the rest) I think the best thing he states is how even if you do all this life has no promises. It's sort of a morbid truth and that's something I personally tend to forget. You can do the best you can and try the hardest and still fail. But for me it's about after that fail, you get back up and don't give up and just keep believing and working even harder.

There's very poor vocal pedagogy today. The knowledge of Physiology is very important but it does not produce great singers, actually great singers are becoming practically extinct. This is an era of despise for discipline in every aspect of human life which is technically supported but deprived of the idea of efforts as a way towards achievement. Today, singers simply do not train as much as they should and they are flung into the operatic arena too soon before they can actually get a grasp of real singing is about. Hadley's explanation is accurate and unquestionable.

I also agree with Hadley, and I am not even a singer. I am a cellist who was always encouraged to "sing" with my instrument. We string players were supposed to be imitating the human voice, the first instrument of us all. As a cello performance major in college, I spent most of my time LISTENING to great performances of great musicians, including singers. How can you learn if you don't listen?

Such good advice. And, among the singers we listen to, let's not forget Jerry Hadley - an exceptional singer.

I am deeply touched by this interview. Thank you so much for sharing this precious document !

Wow! Thank you so much for posting this! I met him some years ago at a concert of his. I was with my voice coach, who had sang with him, so we spent some time in the green room visiting. What a great person! Sorely missed!

Bravo Jerry!!! ... Memory Eternal!!!

Excellent - very intelligent guy, clearly. Very sad that he took his life.

This is so precious thank you

Wow...he said all the right things.

This wonderful man speaks the truth!!!

Preach!!!!

So sad that nobody liked this video! The first one was me. I am not saying this to praise myself but to emphasize how ignorant are nowadays "stars" to grrat singers! Riposa In Pace great Jerry Hadley! I love you❤

Brilliant interview!

Just wonderful!!!

His 100 % correct. Also all singers are individuals , and have an individual instrument. Imperfect instrument 's And you have to study , while you are singing , and remember how you approach a note, support. And write the expierence down No matter the size of the choir , or if you sing in concert , or theater. You have to know the limitations of your voice , and accept them. nd go on from there

This is amazing. And very true.

A fabulous perspective.

Gold ! Thank you so Much for sharing these priceless recordings with the world

Beautiful words!! Thanks Jerry!!

I'm glad I listened to the whole thing. Afterwards, I wrote on a piece of paper "Did I sing this as beautifully as I could" and pinned it inside my vocal booth.

I've played guitar for 16 years, I've been having classical voice lessons for 4 years. I am so far better at guitar than I am singing so far and I truly believe my ears are my best friends. Sure learning certain techniques and the like help enormously, but simply listening to how a singer produces a sound (similar to learning guitar) is also very very helpful.

Thanks so much for posting. A fascinating interview with a remarkable artist!

wow, very insightful observations

Thanks for sharing this, it's very important and i hope many teachers around the world can listen to this.

I feel like I'll remember this lesson for the rest of my life.

Se agradecerá mucho si su subtitula esta entrevista.

Truly excellent and fascinating analysis of the current state of affairs in the classical singing world

Quanta verità nelle sue parole...!

Brilliant 👏

Such a gifted artist and clearly highly intelligent. I agree with many individual comments and do believe that context and the study of singing outside of the voice studio is imperative. This audio shows a thread of thoughts surrounding voice study, but the thread is loose and being greatly affected by the wind.

I'm a writer and teacher of writing, and the analogy between the breakdown of 'frame of reference' as a frame of reference in this gentleman's professional-world history and my own is astounding. I'm also a one-time choral scholar at Oxford University, so I know a little about singing. As a singer, Mr Hadley has very few contemporary peers. Perhaps Jussi Bjorling, for anyone who is interested.

Right on Jerry. . Singing comes from the Lungs and the guts through the reed of the throat and the larynx. You sing from your heart and you don't need to mess around with anything else. Take it from a baritone!

Thank you Maestro. I feel validated. What a wonderful singer and mentor.

AMEN!!!

We are defrauding the world of one of our greatest accomplishments. Here we witness a great singer with a great mind tell us the objective truth. Surrounded by all the tools to make great art, we are forced(singers) and forced fed(audience) to accept that the wheel will roll better if we could make that wheel no longer round but square or triangular in shape. There was even a documentary where someone said that they are trying to get rid of bel canto singing. So they want to change what translated from Italian amounts to beautiful singing? Perhaps therein lies the problem and also the solution. We must demand the truth. When opera becomes a new political forum where nothing matters but the ego and objectives of a corrupt and evil administration, we must look back and see historically what has and will continue to do to our fragile existence. The destruction of art, opera being a culmination of all its forms, is the beginning of the end of the human race and its beauty as it was intended. I think that is what Jerry Hadley faced when he took his life. His final act should scare us into making this change. With all his gifts and success he still chose to leave us. A violent act maybe hoping its operatic nature would be more stirring than great talent. A kind of genocide of opera and its forms has begun. It will finish with Mozart, Puccini, Verdi and Wagner and sneak its way into everything we cherish. The human race will truly become a mediocrity. Our devolution back to monkeys with lots of technology would be pretty theatrical. Except the word theater would have been forgotten and hey monkeys with IPhones are too busy texting ooohaha and bananabanana to even notice.

If those who long for an era of great singing really got what he has to say we would seriously consider closing down the academic institutions who pretend they are developing young singers for future careers.

Omg this is what I've been saying for years! Hadley is right on the money and singing is being studied like a text book, not the art form it is, hence the "generic performances" that are rampant today that Hadley is talking about. I heard this past saturday's broadcast of La Boheme, completely soulless. Making beautiful sounds does not mean someone is singing.

I couldn’t agree more no teacher I had ever explained it because they didn’t know they just played the piano and said stupid things as imaginations unless your teacher can do it walk away I don’t think a male voice benefits from a female teacher as a reference they are limited and can’t demonstrate. I mentioned some famous singers to an Opera singer once and her reply was I’m more interested in my own voice she didn’t know who I was talking about UNBELIEVABLE !

If only we have more of these people around instead of the impostors, egocentrics and idiots we are surrounded with today

THIS!!!

Thanks for posting this. Can anybody tell me where this is is sourced from and the date? Much appreciated.

What a rant! I guess he didn't go to school with a bunch of singers who learned their opera roles from recordings because they couldn't read music. A fine singer. It's a shame he's gone.

I saw Hadley onstage many times at the NYC Opera and the Met. His suicide was tragic. He was a good colleague of Sutherland/Bonynge. Sutherland herself studied with professional teachers in Australia, but Bonynge felt that they had taught her all wrong -- darkening her voice for Wagnerian power and taking away her top notes. Nilsson, after nearly ruining her voice with various teachers, figured out a workable technique on her own. Domingo didn't know how to support his voice until another singing friend, during their early professional days in Israel, demonstrated exercises to strengthen his diaphragm. I guess it's hard to find a teacher who knows how to develop a personalized technique.

What year did this interview took place?

I couldn’t find a teacher to work with my big voice, they tried to make me small, ‘masked’ and unbalanced. I gave up. Wasted time and technique with New York teachers. I finally quit. It hurt. I was close but couldnt endure.

Who were his idols?

Can someone tell me why he ended his life? I mean, did his voice just go away, did he forget his technique, did he take on repitoire that was not suitable for his voice? What happened? So sad, I hope he rests in peace. God love him.

Mr. Hadley nailed something I've believed for years. As a theater singer, I've learned as much - if not more - from listening to guys like Jerry Orbach, Bing Crosby, George Hearn and others as I have from my various voice teachers and coaches over the years. And now you hear this generic 'voice' among theater vocalists...they all sound the same, enunciate the same way. It's all about volume, not nuance or individuality. We have body mics now - why does everyone insist on bellowing, whether it's a tender ballad or an up tempo piece? It's even worse with women. The Linda Eder/Idina Menzel voice is all you hear, and it's unfortunate. Cookie cutter singing is everywhere.

Aujourd'hui étant donné que les chanteurSEs ne sont plus en mesure de rendre le beau chant sur scène, l'opéra mise sur la mise en scène.

1952 - 2007??? Died at age 55? What happened to him?

Welp. How’s THAT for addressing the elephant in the room?

I love Hailey’s singing. But I disagree with some of his points. Primarily, the point he makes that signing’s natural habitat is the theatre. NO! Long before the theatre, singing thrived in solo song and in ensemble singing.

Hadley has been wonderful but wouldn't call him an American Singer by sound or education..... this is one of the real big problems today all this American Methods are too much constructed..... the old Italian Belcanto is not what American made with it - excuse and today all this bad singers from America, Europe and Russia are all to much running after this bad US-Marchmellowsound...

JH was a truly great Tenor,hugely underated ...R.I.P

I've played guitar for 16 years, I've been having classical voice lessons for 4 years. I am so far better at guitar than I am singing so far and I truly believe my ears are my best friends. Sure learning certain techniques and the like help enormously, but simply listening to how a singer produces a sound (similar to learning guitar) is also very very helpful.