Jerry Hadley - Comfort ye my people -Messiah - Handel

[sour7lemon]

3:08 -- didn't get the dress-attire memo

[MrCafiero]

@sour7lemon ROFL!! Just goes to show you how distracting something like that can really be from a performance.

[cwlopi1]

What a tragic loss. Jerry, how unfortunate for me that I just now found you.

[alsab28]

wow!!!!!

[welthawood]

I love The Messiah - and I love Jerry Hadley singing "Comfort Yes, My People."

[rychehed]

This man was pure class,one of the great voices of this century,check out his tom rakewell.

[expatmartin]

A wonderful artist with a most beautiful voice and one heck of a nice guy. RIP Jerry Hadley and thank you for gift which you shared so generously with the world.

[Detectivefiction]

Today's Jerry's birth-anniversary, and I'm listening to this. In "Every valley" he can't quite get all the notes in, but "Comfort ye" is beautiful, as is the ending of "Every valley." And I always appreciate his clear diction and straighforward sound, as well as his emotional immediacy. May you be comforted by God, Jerry.

[SHICOFF1]

Great Lyric tenor and I was so lucky to have heard him in opera and in his home state. I saw him at lyric opera Chicago in L' Elisir I will not forget that performance.

[semanlius]

He was a friend of mine, shame on you for your comment!!

[raffadizzle]

his super fish lips are kind of distracting >_<

[Serafinos]

Remember his majestic voice thru the years.

A great loss, indeed. Glad to have youtube/video recordings to remember him by.

:D

[klavierspieler72]

Jerry was a great man, and an acquaintance of mine. He sang this just marvellously!

[MrDavidPun]

A masterful job by Jerry Hadley. Both the tenor and the orchestra sang Every Valley with wonderful energy and spirit. Unfortunately I can't say the same for Comfort Ye. If was too fast and rushed and the orchestra played it in a perfunctory manner. This was entirely the fault of the conductor. Jerry Hadley did his best to create a more intense emotional atmosphere, but he could not easily counter the poor interpretation by the conductor.

[OperaBuff1935]

What a gorgeous rendition of this opening recit and aria by one of the great American tenors of the late 29th Century. I wept when I listened to this - both at the performance of Jerry Hadley and at his untimely death by his own hand 3 1/2 years ago. I pray that Jerry's soul is comforted. He brought so much joy to his many fans in opera, oratoria, and crossover pieces as well. God rest your soul, Jerry.

[culltim]

Come for tea!

[MrCafiero]

@culltim ROFL! How very English of Handel!

[legato29]

@culltim

Thanks, now I will never be able to listen to this movement with a straight face again!!!! Hahaha

[Isreal94]

@culltim AHAHAAH i literally 'laughed out loud'...

[TwistingWays]

@culltim Dammit! Now every time I hear this song I'm going to think that XD

[christianbrecht]

@culltim HAHAHAHAHA

[ivorytickler74]

@culltim you are a total dumbass for making such a statement.

[mortalfrog0815]

@ivorytickler74 why? it's funny

[chinwo]

@culltim LOL COME FOR TEA!

[MourningHazeBand]

Very well done this one is. I have very few things to say other than that. The one thing that I'd have to say is that accomplished would most likely be pronounced accomplish "ed" in Handel's time, so it is usually preformed as such. And "highway, for our God" was a little off. Ad Lib. doesn't indicate that you can make worse the sound, but do all in your ability to keep it simple but sounding good. It was a little off, but no one can be perfect all of the time. I imagine it was better in person.

[mjw9845]

He was a tremendous artist...and he is missed.  May his memory be eternal.

[Alfifa]

Very beautiful!

Karlott

[goethethegreat]

Big voice, rich tone, and an ebullient comportment. well done.

[beethomozart]

excellent voice not the top tenor but certainly he was a very good one, adequate for this type of aria, the famous comfort ye my people, a pity he´s no longer alive

[CurzonRoad]

Excellent, superb, wonderful!

Thank you!

Doug --

[tenorschofield]

I am shocked to learn Jerry Hadley died in 2007; may his soul reach the comfort and joy in Heaven with our Lord...the same joy he gave us with his extraordinary talent and his marvelous humanity. Thank you Jerry Hadley for showing us the way to voice excellence. We will always remember you!!!!!

[leafrey]

A gem! This is one of the most beautiful renditions of In Every Valley, from Handel's Messiah. Jerry Hadley is no longer alive, but as long as we have these recordins, we can remember him and his magnificent voice. Lea Frey

[MrCafiero]

@leafrey Did you know him personally?

[leafrey]

@MrCafiero , Yes, Jerry and I were very close friends. I met him in 1982, when I was a super in a production of La Boheme. I loved that he was kind to everyone in the cast, not just the principals. My husband and I visited him in Rhineblick NY two years before he died. I attended his memorial in Manlius, Illinois. A poem I had written about his death was printed in the program. I shall always miss him. Lea Frey

[martello79]

Great. The best Tom Rakewell we ever heard. Such a pity things ended the way they did.....

[lindsey4truth]

Wow- incredible.

[drtmuir]

Beautifully done-- Jerry had great sylistic flexibility. He is greatly missed.

[jimraw1]

Jerry Hadley was one of the most versatile tenors. I remember during a PBS Great Performances of Show Boat, he talked about how he approached different styles of music and was able to demonstrate. Singers such he and Placido Domingo are few and far between - we miss you greatly Jerry.

[jemmabond]

Does anybody know where I can find a soprano version of this song on youtube?

[01jocooper]

@jemmabond

If you are a soprano, you shouldn't sing this. Sorry.

[jimraw1]

I totally agree with 01jocooper - this should only be sung by a tenor or baritone with good range. Handel wrote this with the male voice in mind. I remember several years ago a friend of mine tried to convince to perform the Laudamus Te (the soprano duet) from Vivaldi's Gloria. Even though I had the range, I refused to do it simply because it wasn't really didn't fit the male voice.

Sometimes change is great - but sometimes things are writted a certain way because that's what is best.

[HerrWarja]

@01jocooper Acctually there is some evidence that this arioso and aria was sung by a soprano att some preformances during Händels lifetime.

[HerrWarja]

@jemmabond twalker742 sings this in his countertenor range.

[halavey]

Yes for sure, it always helps to be Italian for a tenor!

[halavey]

Imagine if he was Italian, same voice but living in Italy and Italian?  They would say a combo of Gigli and Schipa! Italy produced great voices but so did the USA.

[MrCafiero]

You've got it right. Perhaps he should have used his mother's maiden name since she was Italian.

[mezzoly]

In Beverly Sills's autobiography, she wrote about several American sopranos that changed their last names to Italian ones just to have a career.

[analogyman]

This is my favorite part of Handel's Messiah! (BTW, I've been a Buddhist for the past 46 years.) Thank you for posting this on YouTube for the rest of us.

[halavey]

We all liked Jerry Hadley here in the Chicago area, he was from this state, born and raised not far from Chicago and everyone who knew him liked him, voice aside. He was a favorite every time he sang at lyric opera, also The Tucker family had him at the Tucker foundation gala singing and got to know him and RT's son told me he was a very warm and kind man who it was a pleasure to meet with. Still hard to believe he is gone.

[HectorJW2007]

Wow, this is really shocking. I just checked on Wikipedia; I didn't know he had died, and it's been two years now.

[halavey]

Amen ---your right.. Just finished hearing the met brdcst. Hoffmann with Josef C. light voice. Yes I agree Corelli was a true spinto and Del Monaco a real dramatic. Soon they will say Bocelli is a lyric spinto! and don't forget Potts!

[BroadwayVBtime]

that is an amazing comment haha

[MrCafiero]

@halavey LOL! SO TRUE! Things will change. They have to.

[bassfanne45]

@halavey Do I really have to think about Bocelli and Potts. I keep trying to forget both of them, but they're everywhere.

[halavey]

Yes thats true and he may not have done Calaf anyhow but when he sang in Aida in Chicago 1958 it was a role that the review by claudia cassidy said was not good for him in the big house. He usually was very careful about his roles he did it in Chgo. He did 3 shows. None around today. They all want to be more dramatic it seems and then the Spinto's sometimes want to do some lyric roles. UGH! Corelli sang Boheme also in Chicago and New York and it was not for him, now that was a Calaf!

[MrCafiero]

I totally agree. And today there are virtually no true spintos and dramatics - generally speaking. When you compare them to what a *real* spinto (like Corelli) or dramatic (like Del Monaco) they are nowhere even close. Which is why when we talk about Hadley, it is true that he was a lyric in the truest sense. Compared to the greats. But compared to the lyrics singing today he is bigger. They sing like leggieros.

[seektheforce]

@MrCafiero What do you think of Mr. Jussi Bjoerling? I know he's from a much earlier period. I love Jerry Hadley, I wish I had looked up his voice earlier.

[MrCafiero]

Björling was very good, but had a very small voice. Even Jerome Hines said he was disappointed singing with him as it was so small.

I have a lot of Hadley on my channel. Enjoy!

[hightenor123]

Jussi's voice may not have big in the sense that it was not thick, but it was pointed like a laser beam. It was loud at the back of the theatre as it was 5 feet away. I think it is the magic of a wonderful technique that voice size doesn't really matter... It pales in importance next to to solid projection. So many "big" thick voices go nowhere but to the back of their own head. Ps.... Bravo Jerry!!!

[MrCafiero]

I don't use the term "thick" because for me that means something entirely different. Björling did project because he had "core" to his sound, but it was a small sound. Conversely now days we have tenors who have no scuro to the sound. They have nothing BUT chiaro. And it is just as bad in a sense. I rather hear chiaroscuro alla Caruso, Gigli, Pavarotti etc.

[halavey]

Thank you yes he was pure lyric. Jussi did have a small voice I heard that in the house but I felt that the sound he had and better low notes he was able to sing some larger roles that say Kraus could not or Tagliavini could not or would not sing I heard Bergonzi in house, not Big but darker he sang Forza and in Aida in big houses. Bjorling did well in Aida in Europe in smaller houses early (no Forza) So would you say because of JB's good low notes and color he was good in Manrico and Carlo?

[MrCafiero]

Maybe, as you say, in a small house. But the orchestration alone is pretty overpowering in those roles too. The conductor would have to cleverly tone it down. I think it would have been better to stick with his fach. There are plenty of roles there. Let the bigger voices handle what they were meant to handle. :)

[halavey]

Interesting about Voice tags, lyric -spinto, lyric spinto etc. All opinion. I heard Bjorling when I was 18 and it was a medium weight voice for me, not as dark as the Spinto tucker or light as say Kraus, yet Jussi sang Spinto roles with a basically lyric voicehis point was good also many would call him a lyric spinto . He said he was Spinto. Jerry for me was a Lyric and I did not follow his career but remember the performance of Elixir was really beautiful, in lyric roles very fine.

[MrCafiero]

The voice tags have nothing to do with what Hadley's voice was or wasn't. They are general operatic terms. I know people who heard Björling and they said the voice was very small. Hines, in fact, said he was disappointed when he sang with him as it was so small. Hadley was a lyric. Pure lyric.

[halavey]

Well i can only tell you in the house it was a pure lyric tenor and that was best for his voice. When I heard him in house in prime voice that was what it was, not quite light as Tagliavini or Schipa but a lyric not a lyric spinto.

[MrCafiero]

Exactly.

[tonebari]

Very nice job. I would say technically, he was just super, Unfortunately, the orchestra; especially the conductor wasn't up to the same level and killed his expression IMHO.

[halavey]

Glad I was lucky enough to hear him at lyric opera in Chicago in his prime, beautiful lyric tenor, wish his life would have ended differently like all of us who appreciated him.

[tonebari]

@halavey Seems he was more a medium-weight voice to me, going by timbre, but I never saw him live.

[MrCafiero]

I am not sure what you are asking me? Are you asking me when he, personally, changed his approach/technique? Or when this kind of technique was lost generally? He started changing it after 1993 and his voice wen down hill. That is after 15 years of singing at a very high level. General technique has gotten worse after the mid 20th century. It is time for a major overhauling. It is not a "notion", but rather a functional reality of how the voice works ideally to get the most out of it.

[montallio]

I was referring to your remark "people have lost the technical approach...", so I meant in general. Therefore, if you can still remember it, it cannot really be lost. Possibly opera singing may decline a bit because of the advent of theatre amplication and recordings in general. This overemphasizes singers that sound good that way. But I still hear a lot of good singing. I heard Hadley somewhere after 1993 live and it was pretty bad by then.

[MrCafiero]

When I say it is "lost" I mean it *IN GENERAL*, not to mean that not a single person on the earth has the approach. MOST don't teach it or have it. And those things like amplification and enhancement have had a lot to do with it. Hadley started going downhill after 1993 because he started changing his technique, going to another teacher in NY. So he also LOST it.

[angeljenny55]

now THAT'S what I'm talking about!

Merry Christmas!

[robbcarson]

Interesting comment about this not being "operatic" enough. This is not an opera!! In Handel's day, the singers were not operatic and a straighter tone would have been used. In recent years we have used opera singers for oratorio pieces only because "straight" singing is not in vogue in this day and age. I think overall this is a wonderful performance and the breath control is amazing.

[MrCafiero]

There is actually no proof that singers in Handel's time used mostly straight tone. Most of the confusion comes from scholars tying to apply instrumental markings to the voice. Orders given to instrumentalists to "not vibrato" have been mistakenly also given to the singers. Also, early music tends to have different definitions of tremolo and vibrato than we use today. And the oldest manuscripts of bel canto teach that the voice must have vibrato.

[dantedelamancha]

I like your post!

I'm by no means an expert on early singing technique. However, I would argue that the human voice probably hasn't changed very much in the last 50,000 years. This makes me assume that people, while not always using the same technique, had the same instrument to work with and must have always had a similar result when singing without tension. No tension being what western music usually demands of singers. Just a thought!

[MrCafiero]

The voice hasn't changed, but people have lost the technical approach that developed voices to their fullest potential.

[umpinchief]

Jerry, fellow tenor, may you rest in peace.

Your gift was taken from us far too soon.

Your Tom Rakewell will live on in eternity.

[minion6500]

amazing how classical music is still renown. yet the music of today may be forgotten a few centuries from now. only time will time

[Andrewstory79]

superb

[anakyriou]

Jerry, you were and are loved. Rest in Peace.

[BlueMordden]

If you liked this, check out his performance of Candide which is at its best simply stunning.

For a wonderful Comfort Ye/Every Valley, check out Jon Humphrey's performance on YouTube with Robert Shaw. It's a benchmark performance.

[MrCafiero]

Humphrey sings it like a pop/Broadway singer in the sense that it is much lighter and less operatic.

[TenoreRobusto1347]

In what way is this less operatic? I don't understand what you mean. His technique is excellent throughout most of these two pieces. I makes one or two vocal decisions I wouldn't, but there was nothing in here I wouldn't call operatic.  Could you be more specific about what you mean?

[MrCafiero]

Humphrey? It is light, pulled off of the core and darkness and white toned.

[skatesindreams]

Beautiful, straightforward singing; delivered with evident pleasure - as it should be!

[timananda]

Great version. What a shame.

[stevevandien]

On seeing this again, what's particularly striking is that Hadley seems to be having fun. Some singers these days, especially young ones, have such a long-faced attitude when they perform --

[MrCafiero]

I think you can have fun when your voice is free so that you can do with it what you wish with confidence.

[stevevandien]

Amen!

[cowabunga577]

Once you get through the first melisma in #3 it's easy to smile - you beat the first one and will breathe for the next one. But he smiles in the gap between #2 and #3! Still a wonderful example. RIP.

[Detectivefiction]

@stevevandien You know, you're right (both about Jerry and about modern singers). And I'd add that just because an aria is "serious" or "sacred" doesn't mean that it shouldn't be performed with a certain degree of fun.

[stevevandien]

@Detectivefiction Absolutely, especially when the singer in question has ample technique to do the music justice, as Hadley did here:) --

[stevevandien]

I love Hadley - he is at his best here -- a tormented soul, rest in peace --

[aidavdbrake]

i'm a real fan too. i heard him sing tito here in amsterdam, a most painful performance, in 2002, the year of his divorce, after which he banned himself from the stage. such a sad way to go.

R.I.P. Jerry. (L)