Always a student
The scene – the summer of 1978 in the ballroom of the Holiday Inn in Pendleton, Indiana. On an out-of-tune upright piano my friend and colleague, George Daugherty, is accompanying me as I am singing for Metropolitan Opera mezzo-soprano, Rosalind Elias - a private master class with this wonderful singer. I finish an aria, Miss Elias corrects a few things, makes suggestions and gives compliments. George and I then launch into a second aria and when finished Miss Elias again offers a critique and praise. She is gracious, honest, kind and proffers professional advice. Miss Elias asked where I was going to school and I respond that George and I are students at the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati. Immediately she asks, “Do you study with Italo Tajo?” Yes, I had been directed by him in the opera La Cenerentola and had taken his opera characterization class. In our continuing conversation, she states that Ital...