//essays//
Spring 2019
Spring 2019
Richard Tucker:
Synagogue and Stage
Alexander Rabinowitz
The post-World War II era ushered in a period where Jews increasingly integrated into American society. However, this largely arose through “Americanization” of second-generation American Jews. While Jews advanced socio-economically, those involved in “high-art,” such as opera, had been reticent to incorporate Jewish identity into their public personas. In contrast, Richard Tucker defied prevailing norms of “Americanization,” on his way to becoming “the American Caruso.” Richard Tucker’s emergence in the mid-1940’s was revolutionary as he proudly embraced Judaism and his cantorial background while becoming an American icon, trailblazing a harmonious identity as a “Jewish-American” at the highest echelon of American culture.
Despite Jewish advances in many spheres of American life, including political leadership and economic mobility, Jews remained inhibited to proclaim their heritage in the realm of “high-art.” Jack Warner, the Jewish founder of Warner Bros. Studios, famously remarked to an aspiring actor, "Look, kid, the people are gonna find out you're a Jew sooner or later, but better later. If you stick and they like you, they won't mind. But if we say right off you're a Jew, they ain't gonna like you." In 1945, the year Tucker debuted at the Metropolitan Opera, many elite universities, maintained racial quotas excluding Jews from prestigious institutions. In particular, the Met Opera proved a challenging venue for Jews in the 1920’s and 1930’s as the Met prohibited Jews from owning boxes. Furthermore, while singers who “happened to be Jewish,” such as Friedrich Schorr and Emmanuel List performed at the Met since the early 20th century, Tucker was the first to openly incorporate his Jewishness into his public image.
The outset of Tucker’s opera career was paradigmatic of his propensity to flout convention. In 1942, Edward Johnson, then-general manager of the Metropolitan Opera, “paid a listening visit to the Brooklyn Jewish Center, where Tucker held the position of cantor.” Remarkably, the chief executive of New York’s premier cultural institution sought potential talent in a synagogue, underscoring how Tucker’s career revolutionized America’s relationship with its Jews. While at the Met, Tucker made a point of annunciating his connection to Judaism, unlike other Jewish singers such as Robert Merrill who, while practicing Jews, avoided publicizing their Jewishness. Confidently, Tucker kept a prayer shawl in his Metropolitan Opera dressing room, an object unfathomable at the Met during the 1930’s when the board prohibited Jews from owning boxes. Similarly, in 1954, Tucker refused a lucrative recording contract with Angel Records, as Herbert van Karajan, formerly associated with the Nazi regime, was scheduled to conduct. Tucker told Angel Records, “I can’t make a record with Karajan. My Jewish people would never forgive me.” However, Angel Records chose to record with Tucker rather than Karajan. This vignette highlights how Tucker’s status as one of the world’s leading tenors changed how the world of classical music accepted Jews. Tucker’s “almost aggressive assertion of his religion,” was integral to a new, progressive post-War American culture he envisioned, as Tucker optimistically and correctly contended that the public would not hold his religion against him.
Tucker synthesized his Jewish-American identity by maintaining his cantorial career amidst operatic stardom. Despite receiving a contract from the Metropolitan Opera in 1945, Tucker sought to keep his full-time position at the prestigious Brooklyn Jewish Center but was denied by the rabbi due to religious objections. However, Tucker continued to serve Jewish communities as a cantor on holidays and release multiple cantorial records. Tucker’s effective blending of American and Jewish identities is paralleled by his operatic style. Reviews noted the influence of Tucker’s cantorial training, which enabled him to negotiate the trills and coloratura required for difficult Verdi arias. In fact, Tucker articulated the influence of cantorial music on his operatic sound when asked by the great Italian tenor Franco Corelli how to properly sing “O Dolci Mani,” from Puccini’s Tosca: “To sing it right, you have to be Jewish.” Remarkably, a Jewish-American instructed a native-Italian how to sing Puccini.
Richard Tucker’s idealistic goals and the steps he took to promote them led American media to become more accepting of openly-practicing Jews. For example, on September 20, 1962 an article appeared in the Chicago Daily Tribune entitled, “Tenor Tucker To Be Cantor At Rites Here.” This seemingly innocuous piece is a product of Tucker publicly maintaining his cantorial career. The article detailing that Tucker will conduct High Holiday services at a Chicago synagogue is particularly striking, as a prominent newspaper has raised awareness of the Jewish holidays only due to the success and popularity of Tucker’s opera career. Likewise, recognizing Tucker’s prowess as both an operatic tenor and cantorial artist, Columbia Records embraced the dual identity that Tucker had forged and contracted him to record both operatic and cantorial albums. Furthermore, Tucker exposed cantorial music to the general public, as underscored by critics like Louis Biancolli of the Sun Telegraph, who extolled Tucker’s “impeccable ‘Ah Si Ben Mio,’ that added the forgotten trills as only a cantor can negotiate them.”
In the early 1950’s, the Metropolitan Opera staged a number of performances in English “to bring the medium closer to the public.” In the post-War years defined by American pride, the significance of the Met choosing Tucker to perform in English, the language of the Allies, cannot be overlooked. Despite being a proud Jew and the only child born to his parents in the United States, Tucker crystalized his position as the “American tenor.” Consequently, the media dubbed Tucker, “the American Caruso,” and the global ambassador of American opera. Pursuantly, an opera critic for the Italian paper, Il Giorno, reviewing Tucker’s performance of Verdi’s Luisa Miller in Milan declared: “That Richard Tucker- an American Jew- is among the greatest tenors who have sung at the Teatro Alla Scala is now beyond any dispute. Remarkably, the foreign press characterized Tucker seamlessly embodying the newly compatible identity he developed.
American media further embraced Tucker’s revolutionary decision to publicly meld his Jewish and American identities. The American public was formally introduced to Tucker in 1952 through a Sabbath-eve meal. On the CBS program “Person to Person,” where celebrities were interviewed in their homes, Tucker proudly showcased his family participating in a religious ritual for national broadcast. The decision to highlight Tucker’s religion proved a popular sensation, vindicating Tucker’s vision of a pluralistic national culture, in contrast to the dark reality expressed by Jack Warner in the 1930’s. When Life Magazine covered the Tucker family Sabbath-meal, including Tucker reciting kiddush, the article was titled, “World’s Greatest Tenor is A Cantor From Brooklyn.” Evidently, Tucker’s vision of Jews maintaining their heritage, as opposed to “Americanizing” in order to be integrated into society was successful.
Tucker’s propensity to bridge cultural divides was apparent in his interfaith work. Following the landmark Second Vatican Council in 1965, marking a warming of Catholic-Jewish relations, Tucker befriended Catholic prelates and occasionally performed at Catholic fundraisers, notwithstanding disapproval from quarters of the Jewish community. Championing Tucker’s idealism, the University of Notre Dame bestowed Tucker with an honorary degree. In addition, Richard Tucker accepted the Kennedy family invitation to sing “Panis Angelicus,” the funeral mass for Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in 1968. Furthermore, upon Tucker’s passing in 1975, St. Patrick’s Cathedral held a memorial service for Tucker, the first Jew to be memorialized at the Cathedral, “because of… his good works for the Catholic Church and the people of New York.”
Synthesizing his American and Jewish personas into one harmonious dual-identity, Tucker contributed to American Jewry’s newfound relationship with classical music, diminishing Jews’ reliance on synagogues for high-quality music. In the 1930’s when Tucker’s cantorial career began, synagogues were the Jews’ de-facto opera houses. Tucker’s first major cantorial position was at Adath Israel in the Bronx, then one of the country’s preeminent Conservative synagogues. Adath Israel created an extraordinary musical program, employing a professional choir, an organ and musical director, Zavel Zilberts, a renowned conservatory-trained composer and arranger of Jewish music. Hiring Cantor Richard Tucker cemented Adath Israel’s commitment to high-level liturgical music. Similarly, at Tucker’s subsequent position at the over three thousand member Brooklyn Jewish Center, the synagogue boasted conservatory-educated Sholom Secunda as musical director. As evident in the early stages of Tucker’s career, Jews’ musical experiences were heavily oriented around the synagogue.
Likewise, Tucker’s rise was partially responsible for the decline of Yiddish Theater in New York. In the autumn of 1941, Tucker made his operatic debut in Verdi’s La Traviata at the Al Jolson Theatre for the Alfredo Salmaggi Opera Company, a low-budget enterprise that made opera accessible to working-class people, who could now count Jews as suddenly avid patrons. Significantly, Tucker recounted that at these debut performances, “Half the audience was Jewish.” The influence of Tucker on American Jewry’s newfound comfort in opera houses is apparent when considering a joint concert Swedish tenor Jussi Bjorling and Richard Tucker held at the Metropolitan Opera in honor of the President of Italy in 1956. According to concert attendee, Jacob Cohen, Bjorling was “the personal favorite of the standees downstairs,” while “Tucker’s crowd,” sat “upstairs… in the family circle.” Importantly, Tucker’s ascent as an opera superstar whom Jews could count as a proud member of their community, beloved and accepted by American society, was integral to the decline of American Yiddish Theater in the 1950s. A once-booming industry pre-War, the Yiddish theater had served as a place where Jews could enjoy entertainment and feel at home, seemingly rendered obsolete by the emergence of Tucker’s easing Jews into opera houses.
Tucker’s status as the country’s premier tenor had striking personal consequences for many American Jews of the period. Writer Jacob Cohen recounted the pride Tucker elicited for many Jews of the post-War era in part due to his publicly maintaining his heritage. Growing up in the early 1940’s, Cohen’s family became instantly infatuated with Richard Tucker, who debuted on the Saturday night radio program, Chicago Theater of the Air. The Cohens identified with Tucker’s cantorial-influenced singing, namely the “lamentations” and experiences shared by Jews, which manifested in Tucker’s singing. Furthermore, Col. Robert McCormick, publisher of the Chicago Tribune, which produced the weekly radio program, was an infamous anti-Semite. Cohen reflected on his family’s elation when McCormick had no choice but to showcase Tucker, a cantor, on his program due to Tucker’s rising star in 1944. Seemingly, Tucker created a welcome diversion for American Jews as they learned to their helpless horror of the devastation of European Jewry. For families like the Cohens, Richard Tucker’s national fame was a source of immense satisfaction particularly because Tucker “remained a hazzan.”
Following Richard Tucker’s passing in 1975, his legacy continued to impact American Jewry. The power of Richard Tucker in transforming American musical high-society was palpably felt at his own funeral. Not only was Tucker the first individual to have had his funeral held at the Metropolitan Opera, but the funeral was also in accord with traditional Jewish rites. This stands in stark contrast to the Met Opera’s policy prior to Tucker’s career prohibiting Jews from owning boxes. Moreover, Tucker’s pupil, Herman Malamood intoned the Jewish memorial prayer, Kel Maleh Rachamim. Interestingly, Malamood was both a rising opera star and cantor, much like Tucker had been in the 1940’s, a career path pioneered by his late mentor.
In conclusion, Richard Tucker successfully seized on his national prominence to promote a more open and progressive society by publicly embracing a harmonious dual-identity as a proud Jew and American. Responding to Tucker’s bold innovation, the American media proclaimed Tucker, “the American Caruso.” Significantly, Tucker proved to American Jewry that proudly preserving one’s heritage did not preclude integration into American culture.
Despite Jewish advances in many spheres of American life, including political leadership and economic mobility, Jews remained inhibited to proclaim their heritage in the realm of “high-art.” Jack Warner, the Jewish founder of Warner Bros. Studios, famously remarked to an aspiring actor, "Look, kid, the people are gonna find out you're a Jew sooner or later, but better later. If you stick and they like you, they won't mind. But if we say right off you're a Jew, they ain't gonna like you." In 1945, the year Tucker debuted at the Metropolitan Opera, many elite universities, maintained racial quotas excluding Jews from prestigious institutions. In particular, the Met Opera proved a challenging venue for Jews in the 1920’s and 1930’s as the Met prohibited Jews from owning boxes. Furthermore, while singers who “happened to be Jewish,” such as Friedrich Schorr and Emmanuel List performed at the Met since the early 20th century, Tucker was the first to openly incorporate his Jewishness into his public image.
The outset of Tucker’s opera career was paradigmatic of his propensity to flout convention. In 1942, Edward Johnson, then-general manager of the Metropolitan Opera, “paid a listening visit to the Brooklyn Jewish Center, where Tucker held the position of cantor.” Remarkably, the chief executive of New York’s premier cultural institution sought potential talent in a synagogue, underscoring how Tucker’s career revolutionized America’s relationship with its Jews. While at the Met, Tucker made a point of annunciating his connection to Judaism, unlike other Jewish singers such as Robert Merrill who, while practicing Jews, avoided publicizing their Jewishness. Confidently, Tucker kept a prayer shawl in his Metropolitan Opera dressing room, an object unfathomable at the Met during the 1930’s when the board prohibited Jews from owning boxes. Similarly, in 1954, Tucker refused a lucrative recording contract with Angel Records, as Herbert van Karajan, formerly associated with the Nazi regime, was scheduled to conduct. Tucker told Angel Records, “I can’t make a record with Karajan. My Jewish people would never forgive me.” However, Angel Records chose to record with Tucker rather than Karajan. This vignette highlights how Tucker’s status as one of the world’s leading tenors changed how the world of classical music accepted Jews. Tucker’s “almost aggressive assertion of his religion,” was integral to a new, progressive post-War American culture he envisioned, as Tucker optimistically and correctly contended that the public would not hold his religion against him.
Tucker synthesized his Jewish-American identity by maintaining his cantorial career amidst operatic stardom. Despite receiving a contract from the Metropolitan Opera in 1945, Tucker sought to keep his full-time position at the prestigious Brooklyn Jewish Center but was denied by the rabbi due to religious objections. However, Tucker continued to serve Jewish communities as a cantor on holidays and release multiple cantorial records. Tucker’s effective blending of American and Jewish identities is paralleled by his operatic style. Reviews noted the influence of Tucker’s cantorial training, which enabled him to negotiate the trills and coloratura required for difficult Verdi arias. In fact, Tucker articulated the influence of cantorial music on his operatic sound when asked by the great Italian tenor Franco Corelli how to properly sing “O Dolci Mani,” from Puccini’s Tosca: “To sing it right, you have to be Jewish.” Remarkably, a Jewish-American instructed a native-Italian how to sing Puccini.
Richard Tucker’s idealistic goals and the steps he took to promote them led American media to become more accepting of openly-practicing Jews. For example, on September 20, 1962 an article appeared in the Chicago Daily Tribune entitled, “Tenor Tucker To Be Cantor At Rites Here.” This seemingly innocuous piece is a product of Tucker publicly maintaining his cantorial career. The article detailing that Tucker will conduct High Holiday services at a Chicago synagogue is particularly striking, as a prominent newspaper has raised awareness of the Jewish holidays only due to the success and popularity of Tucker’s opera career. Likewise, recognizing Tucker’s prowess as both an operatic tenor and cantorial artist, Columbia Records embraced the dual identity that Tucker had forged and contracted him to record both operatic and cantorial albums. Furthermore, Tucker exposed cantorial music to the general public, as underscored by critics like Louis Biancolli of the Sun Telegraph, who extolled Tucker’s “impeccable ‘Ah Si Ben Mio,’ that added the forgotten trills as only a cantor can negotiate them.”
In the early 1950’s, the Metropolitan Opera staged a number of performances in English “to bring the medium closer to the public.” In the post-War years defined by American pride, the significance of the Met choosing Tucker to perform in English, the language of the Allies, cannot be overlooked. Despite being a proud Jew and the only child born to his parents in the United States, Tucker crystalized his position as the “American tenor.” Consequently, the media dubbed Tucker, “the American Caruso,” and the global ambassador of American opera. Pursuantly, an opera critic for the Italian paper, Il Giorno, reviewing Tucker’s performance of Verdi’s Luisa Miller in Milan declared: “That Richard Tucker- an American Jew- is among the greatest tenors who have sung at the Teatro Alla Scala is now beyond any dispute. Remarkably, the foreign press characterized Tucker seamlessly embodying the newly compatible identity he developed.
American media further embraced Tucker’s revolutionary decision to publicly meld his Jewish and American identities. The American public was formally introduced to Tucker in 1952 through a Sabbath-eve meal. On the CBS program “Person to Person,” where celebrities were interviewed in their homes, Tucker proudly showcased his family participating in a religious ritual for national broadcast. The decision to highlight Tucker’s religion proved a popular sensation, vindicating Tucker’s vision of a pluralistic national culture, in contrast to the dark reality expressed by Jack Warner in the 1930’s. When Life Magazine covered the Tucker family Sabbath-meal, including Tucker reciting kiddush, the article was titled, “World’s Greatest Tenor is A Cantor From Brooklyn.” Evidently, Tucker’s vision of Jews maintaining their heritage, as opposed to “Americanizing” in order to be integrated into society was successful.
Tucker’s propensity to bridge cultural divides was apparent in his interfaith work. Following the landmark Second Vatican Council in 1965, marking a warming of Catholic-Jewish relations, Tucker befriended Catholic prelates and occasionally performed at Catholic fundraisers, notwithstanding disapproval from quarters of the Jewish community. Championing Tucker’s idealism, the University of Notre Dame bestowed Tucker with an honorary degree. In addition, Richard Tucker accepted the Kennedy family invitation to sing “Panis Angelicus,” the funeral mass for Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in 1968. Furthermore, upon Tucker’s passing in 1975, St. Patrick’s Cathedral held a memorial service for Tucker, the first Jew to be memorialized at the Cathedral, “because of… his good works for the Catholic Church and the people of New York.”
Synthesizing his American and Jewish personas into one harmonious dual-identity, Tucker contributed to American Jewry’s newfound relationship with classical music, diminishing Jews’ reliance on synagogues for high-quality music. In the 1930’s when Tucker’s cantorial career began, synagogues were the Jews’ de-facto opera houses. Tucker’s first major cantorial position was at Adath Israel in the Bronx, then one of the country’s preeminent Conservative synagogues. Adath Israel created an extraordinary musical program, employing a professional choir, an organ and musical director, Zavel Zilberts, a renowned conservatory-trained composer and arranger of Jewish music. Hiring Cantor Richard Tucker cemented Adath Israel’s commitment to high-level liturgical music. Similarly, at Tucker’s subsequent position at the over three thousand member Brooklyn Jewish Center, the synagogue boasted conservatory-educated Sholom Secunda as musical director. As evident in the early stages of Tucker’s career, Jews’ musical experiences were heavily oriented around the synagogue.
Likewise, Tucker’s rise was partially responsible for the decline of Yiddish Theater in New York. In the autumn of 1941, Tucker made his operatic debut in Verdi’s La Traviata at the Al Jolson Theatre for the Alfredo Salmaggi Opera Company, a low-budget enterprise that made opera accessible to working-class people, who could now count Jews as suddenly avid patrons. Significantly, Tucker recounted that at these debut performances, “Half the audience was Jewish.” The influence of Tucker on American Jewry’s newfound comfort in opera houses is apparent when considering a joint concert Swedish tenor Jussi Bjorling and Richard Tucker held at the Metropolitan Opera in honor of the President of Italy in 1956. According to concert attendee, Jacob Cohen, Bjorling was “the personal favorite of the standees downstairs,” while “Tucker’s crowd,” sat “upstairs… in the family circle.” Importantly, Tucker’s ascent as an opera superstar whom Jews could count as a proud member of their community, beloved and accepted by American society, was integral to the decline of American Yiddish Theater in the 1950s. A once-booming industry pre-War, the Yiddish theater had served as a place where Jews could enjoy entertainment and feel at home, seemingly rendered obsolete by the emergence of Tucker’s easing Jews into opera houses.
Tucker’s status as the country’s premier tenor had striking personal consequences for many American Jews of the period. Writer Jacob Cohen recounted the pride Tucker elicited for many Jews of the post-War era in part due to his publicly maintaining his heritage. Growing up in the early 1940’s, Cohen’s family became instantly infatuated with Richard Tucker, who debuted on the Saturday night radio program, Chicago Theater of the Air. The Cohens identified with Tucker’s cantorial-influenced singing, namely the “lamentations” and experiences shared by Jews, which manifested in Tucker’s singing. Furthermore, Col. Robert McCormick, publisher of the Chicago Tribune, which produced the weekly radio program, was an infamous anti-Semite. Cohen reflected on his family’s elation when McCormick had no choice but to showcase Tucker, a cantor, on his program due to Tucker’s rising star in 1944. Seemingly, Tucker created a welcome diversion for American Jews as they learned to their helpless horror of the devastation of European Jewry. For families like the Cohens, Richard Tucker’s national fame was a source of immense satisfaction particularly because Tucker “remained a hazzan.”
Following Richard Tucker’s passing in 1975, his legacy continued to impact American Jewry. The power of Richard Tucker in transforming American musical high-society was palpably felt at his own funeral. Not only was Tucker the first individual to have had his funeral held at the Metropolitan Opera, but the funeral was also in accord with traditional Jewish rites. This stands in stark contrast to the Met Opera’s policy prior to Tucker’s career prohibiting Jews from owning boxes. Moreover, Tucker’s pupil, Herman Malamood intoned the Jewish memorial prayer, Kel Maleh Rachamim. Interestingly, Malamood was both a rising opera star and cantor, much like Tucker had been in the 1940’s, a career path pioneered by his late mentor.
In conclusion, Richard Tucker successfully seized on his national prominence to promote a more open and progressive society by publicly embracing a harmonious dual-identity as a proud Jew and American. Responding to Tucker’s bold innovation, the American media proclaimed Tucker, “the American Caruso.” Significantly, Tucker proved to American Jewry that proudly preserving one’s heritage did not preclude integration into American culture.
Bibliography
Books:
Books:
- Drake, James. Richard Tucker: A Biography. New York: E.P. Dutton, Inc., 1984.
- Netsky, Henkus. “Secular Jewish Music Expression- Is Nothing Sacred?” In Jewish Secularity: The Search for Roots and the Challenges of Relevant Meaning, 81, ed. Zachary Heller and David Gordis. University Press of America, 2012
- Back, Adina. “Blacks, Jews and the Struggle to Integrate Brooklyn's Junior High School 258: A Cold War Story,” Journal of American Ethnic History vol. 20, no.2 (Winter 2001): 38-69.
- Leff, Leonard. “A Question of Identity.” Opera News vol. 67, iss. 6, (December 2002): 34.
- Siff, Ira. “Powerhouse.” Opera News, vol. 78, iss. 1, (July 2013): 28.
- Golden, Sarah. “Richard Tucker in Chicago.” Chicago Jewish Historical Society vol. 38, no. 3 (Summer 2014):
- Cohen, Jacob. ”In Memory of Richard Tucker.” Commentary vol. 59, iss. 4, (April 1, 1975): 70.
- “Tenor Tucker To Be Cantor At Rites Here.” Chicago Daily Tribune. September 20, 1962. https://search.proquest.com/docview/182963810/CEF08DCA3694CF6PQ/13?accountid=10226
- Blau, Eleanor. “Richard Tucker Is Honored at St. Patrick’s.” New York Times, October 15, 1975. https://search.proquest.com/docview/182963810/CEF08DCA3694CF6PQ/13?accountid=10226.
- Delatiner, Barbara. “A Cantor’s Other Role: Opera Singer.” New York Times, November 30, 1986. https://search.proquest.com/docview/111001709/CEF08DCA3694CF6PQ/47?accountid=10226
//ALEXANDER RABINOWITZ is a senior in Columbia College. He can be reached at acr2184@columbia.edu.
Photo courtesy of http://operawire.com/richard-tuckers-five-most-performed-roles-at-the-metropolitan-opera/.
Photo courtesy of http://operawire.com/richard-tuckers-five-most-performed-roles-at-the-metropolitan-opera/.