Tau, Craig & Gigli

Today I had lunch with a friend from my Tower days whom I hadn't seen for almost two years, the tenor Ta'u Pupu'a. The tall (6' 5") and very good looking Ta'u  - a former NFL football player - has had the incredible good fortune of befriending Dame Kiri Te Kanawa who has taken him under her wing.  Here in New York City, Ta'u successfully went thru the audition process and has been accepted at the Juilliard Opera Center starting this Fall.  In recent seasons Ta'u has sung the leading tenor roles in ADRIANA LECOUVREUR and TOSCA with Houston's Opera in the Heights. He hails from the exotic Pacific Island kingdom of Tonga.

After lunch I was heading for the library and ran into one of my opera buddies (and ABT soloist) Craig Salstein; we hadn't seen each other for a few months so we went up to Craig's place and he regaled me with items from his I-Pod including the Tomb Scene from AIDA (Met 1963) with Leontyne Price and Carlo Bergonzi both in spectacular voice; a phenomenal PAGLIACCI prologo by Mario Sereni (from 1964); lots of Tebaldi and Tucker and then a wonderful selection from his favorite Beniamino Gigli 'live' performances. The Gigli stuff was so thrilling that I came home and put on a disc of early recordings by the great tenor and simply basked in the beauty of sound and his magical way of spinning a phrase.

ABT opens in a week and Craig has plenty of assignments including his first Birbanto in  CORSAIRE and he's featured in the new Twyla Tharp ballet, Rabbit & Rogue, (with a Danny Elfman score) which opens on June 3.