Richard Tucker

Richard Tucker is today primarily associated with the history of opera in America -- a highly gifted tenor, he is compared to Franco Corelli in influence and appeal, and classed with people like Alfredo Kraus and Nicolai Gedda. But Tucker, as a Jewish American who came to music from a religious background, had an output different from all of those others, and, ironically, was just as well known in the United States -- and perhaps even more beloved -- for that other side of his work. When he sang the part of Radames in Verdi's Aida as conducted by Toscanini on the NBC televisio...