Tenor Jeremy Cady rehearses the role of Rudolfo in the University of
Kentucky Opera Theatre's production of La Boheme in the Schmidt Vocal
Arts Center on Oct. 7., 2008. Photos by Rich Copley | LexGo. Below: Luciano Pavarotti.
Tuesday night, I went over to the Scmidt Vocal Arts Center at UK to shoot some photos for a feature we’re running in Sunday morning’s paper about University of Kentucky Opera Theater tenor Jeremy Cady, who is singing the role of Rudolfo in La Boheme the next two weekends — he shares the role with tenor Phumzile Sojola.
As always, it’s fun to shoot artists at work. During this rehearsal, I had this particularly striking moment when I was looking at shots on my camera. There was one of Jeremy in the midst of singing Che gelida manina, eyes closed, mouth wide open, hands clutching at his chest.
“That looks like Pavarotti,” I thought.
Of course, it was Jeremy, a 34-year-old doctoral student at UK, who is racking up and impressive string of leading tenor roles, as well as leads and supporting parts in regional opera companies such as Kentucky Opera in Louisville and Cincinnati Opera. But with that image in mind, it was interesting to sit down with Jeremy the next afternoon and hear him start talking about how one of his early inspirations was a recording of Pavarotti singing Che gelida:
“Pavarotti was the first tenor for me that really sparked my imagination and amazed me with the power of the human voice to just soar over the orchestra.”
During that interview, Jeremy also said that rehearsal was the night that the opera, his favorite, really came together for him. That was the result of lots of listening, lots of work, and maybe he was channeling a little something too.
Here are a few other shots from that rehearsal:
Top to bottom: Director Michael Ehrman; David Baker as Schaunard, Mark Elliot Golson II as Colline and Eric Brown as Marcello; Jeremy Cady, Mark Elliot Golson II, Christopher Baker and Eric Brown; Jeremy Cady as Rudolfo and Amelia Groetsch as Mimi.
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