Tucker, Richard

In 1943 Tucker became the cantor of the Brooklyn Jewish Center, with a congregation of 2,000, and that same year made his operatic debut with the Salmaggi Opera, a small company in New York. He entered the Metropolitan Opera auditions but did not do well. Nonetheless, his teacher persuaded Edward Johnson , the general director of the Metropolitan, to attend services at the Jewish Center in order to hear the cantor sing, and a contract was issued enabling Tucker to make...