Jerry Hadley

Jerry Hadley stood among the most reflective vocalists of the late twentieth century, probing an expansive array of material while maintaining a particular commitment to new music. Early on, his instrument suited Mozart and the bel canto tradition, its warmly lyrical timbre drawing comparisons to the most radiant tenor sound since Fritz Wunderlich. Although heavier parts assumed too soon began to erode that freshness, his interpretive intelligence and insistence on excellence kept him among the generation’s most compelling tenors. Music had attracted him since boyhood; as a teenager he toured with the ensemble Up with People. At the University of Illinois he turned serious about vocal study, and a classmate urged him to try out for Tamino in a campus production of The Magic Flute. The success of that portrayal convinced him to pursue opera professionally. His first appearance came in 1978 at Sarasota Opera, where he sang Lionel in von Flotow’s Martha. The following year Beverly Sills invited him to New York City Opera, and he made his company debut as Arturo in Lucia di Lammermoor. The evening proved eventful: unfamiliar with the staging, he snagged his sword on a chair and dragged it across the boards, set his plumed hat ablaze, and received an unintended thrust from a chorus member’s weapon in a region that might have produced unforeseen high notes. Those were merely the most conspicuous mishaps.

Despite the chaotic introduction, he went on to perform Pinkerton, Des Grieux in Massenet’s Manon, Tom Rakewell, and Gounod’s Faust at the New York City Opera. Europe first heard him in 1982 when he sang Nemorino at the Vienna State Opera; that same year he won the Richard Tucker Competition. In 1983 he appeared at Glyndebourne as Idamante in Mozart’s Idomeneo, then made his Covent Garden debut the next season as Fenton in Falstaff. The Metropolitan Opera welcomed him in 1987 as Des Grieux, yet roles such as Offenbach’s Hoffmann demanded a technique that often “drew on capital,” gradually diminishing flexibility and stamina by the close of the 1980s. Pitch grew less reliable and a previously absent rawness crept into the tone, yet these years also yielded some of his most enduring accomplishments. In 1989 he delivered a memorable account of the title role in Leonard Bernstein’s revised Candide, and his recording of Show Boat in John McGlinn’s restored edition ranked among his most admired and commercially successful releases. Through the 1990s he stayed prominent, appearing regularly on American public-television opera galas and recording extensively for RCA Victor.

Hadley actively promoted twentieth-century repertoire in both operatic and popular idioms. He created the title role in Myron Fink’s The Conquistador in 1997 and the lead in John Harbison’s The Great Gatsby two years later; he also originated the tenor part in Paul McCartney’s Liverpool Oratorio and starred in the premiere recording of Edward Thomas’s long-delayed Desire under the Elms. His portrayal of Sam in Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah was widely praised, and his final recording, Jenufa under Bernard Haitink, earned a Grammy. While solo albums issued under his name varied in quality, Standing Room Only—a sharply characterized survey of theater songs—remains perhaps the strongest. He approached every engagement with rigorous standards, once declaring he would never record a role he had not already performed onstage, and he himself supplied the English translation for his recording of Lehár’s The Land of Smiles. After the acclaim surrounding Jenufa, his schedule thinned, financial pressures mounted, and depression deepened. On June 10, 2007, he shot himself with an air rifle in an apparent suicide attempt and died one week later.