Does Competition and Foundation Prize Money Help Singers?

Angela Meade (l) with 1986 Richard
Tucker Award winner Dolora Zajick
(Photo: Ruth Fremson/NY Times)

Anthony Tommasini wrote in the New York Times: "Since 1975 the Richard Tucker Music Foundation, named for the great American tenor, has fostered the careers of emerging singers." The annual gala concert was held on Sunday (November 7) evening. "The evening’s main business was to honor this year’s Tucker Award winner, the young soprano Angela Meade, who receives a $30,000 prize, the foundation’s largest grant. Ms. Meade recently sang three performances of the title role in Donizetti’s Anna Bolena in the Met’s new production, and she returns to the company in February for Verdi’s seldom-heard Ernani. Her first offering here was a fiery aria from Verdi’s Attila. Her sound was enormous, rich and unforced; her coloratura runs and passagework were dispatched with aplomb and precision. Vocally, Ms. Meade was even better in the Act I finale of Bellini’s Norma, for which she was joined by the mezzo-soprano Dolora Zajick as Adalgisa and the sturdy tenor Frank Porretta (substituting for Mr. Giordani) as Pollione." But how much fostering does Ms. Meade's career need at this point? According to the Metropolitan Opera, a top-earner makes $16K/performance. Even a newcomer like Meade (who actually was a winner of the National Council Auditions in 2007 and made her debut at the MET in the 2008 production of Ernani) could easily pull in $9K/performance at the low-end estimate. So at this stage of the game, does a singer like Angela Meade need the help of the Richard Tucker Foundation? Looking back at past Tucker Award winners might show that most of these singers were well on their way and didn't need much "fostering." Check out examples, as well as video performances of these past winners at the Richard Tucker Gala, after the jump.

Eclectic Works From Soprano Susan Dunn in 1982 Recital

An early portrait of Susan Dunn
from the cover of Opera News
magazine in July 1987.

Thanks to YouTube user Sutherland9 we are able to hear some extraordinary musical excerpts from a recital that Grammy Award-winning soprano Susan Dunn gave on September 24, 1982. The clips represented show quite an expanse of repertoire for the spinto most well-known for the music of Giuseppe Verdi. During her career she sang 14 complete operas of the Italian master, including Nabucco, I Masnadieri, I Vespri Siciliani, Giovanna d'Arco, Un Giorno di Regno, Attila and Macbeth. This recital is auspicious for the Arkansas-native because it is the same year she made her professional opera stage debut in the title role of Verdi's Aida at the Peoria Civic Opera in Illinois. Within a decade she was singing at the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala and the Vienna State Opera. Although she scaled her career back significantly in the mid-1990s, she still performs frequently these days in addition to heading the vocal music program Opera Workshop at Duke University. She lives in North Carolina with her husband - conductor and composer - Scott Tilley. [Source]


"Dank sei Dir, Herr" (Händel)


"E Susanna non vien...Dove sono" Le Nozze di Figaro (Mozart)


"Vissi d'arte" Tosca (Puccini)


"Pace, pace mio Dio" La Forza del Destino (Verdi)


"I know where I'm goin'" Irish folk song


"Johnny we hardly knew ye" Irish folk song

Be sure to check out the latest CD release from the soprano. Listen to clips by clicking here: "In the late 1970s, John Wustman came to Indiana University as a guest faculty member. He chose the Mörike-Lieder as the focus of his first semester. After several classes, I worked up the courage to sing 'Schlafendes Jesuskind' for him. His comment as I finished was that we could make a recording together. Thus began our relationship as mentor-accompanist and singer. As my career began and John and I appeared in concert together, I began to dream of recording the Mörike-Lieder with him. From that dream was born a concert presenting all fifty-three songs in two evenings at Duke University. Thomas Potter, my friend and a fellow student of Mr. Wustman, served as our baritone voice for the songs that required the masculine perspective. The Mörike-Lieder, composed in less than nine months of white-hot inspiration, provide the singer with an incredible array of color, character and vocal challenges. As the singer manages technical and interpretive complexities, the accompanist navigates an arduous path of pianistic virtuosity. At first I was drawn to the eight religiously themed songs, but I have come to embrace the naughty 'Erstes Liebeslied eines Madchens,' the gently humorous 'Rat einer Alten,' the tragic 'An Eine Aolsharfe,' and the moody 'Die Geister am Mummelsee.' Mörike poetry is by turns sensual, humorous, mournful, and eerie, but always evocative. Wolf, using a harmonic language akin to that of Wagner, but without the long- windedness, manages to capture the heart of each poem, often distilling the essence into a few measures a couple of intense pages. After years of studying the Mörike-Lieder together and separately, John, Thomas and I offer this recording. Our hope is that the listener will fall in love with them just as we have." [Source]

Maestro Chailly with the lirico-spinto circa 1990.

Read the June 1989 article in the New York Times about Susan Dunn by clicking here and another wonderful article about the singer's background here. Biographical information and more video clips are after the jump.