Imagine opening night. You’re sitting on a plush red chair and looking out at a gilded stage in a stunning Italian opera house. Suddenly the auditorium goes silent as the orchestra begins to play the intoxicating overture from Giacomo Puccini’s “La Bohème.” A stranger walks out on stage. He has a large frame with the face of a cherub. You’ve never seen or heard him before. You think he’s just another new tenor who has been given a chance to sing in the Teatro Comunale in Modena, Italy. There are so many operas playing in Italy all the time that you have no reason to believe this production will be any different than anything you’ve heard before.
But then the tenor, playing the part of the struggling artist Rodolfo, begins to sing. It’s an electrifying voice, a voice that hits high notes like you’ve never heard before. It’s a voice you know you’ll never forget, and it’s a voice that startles you and others in the audience of the Teatro Comunale.
