Word: reardon
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Last week, 17 hours before the inquest In Re: Mary Jo Kopechne was to begin on Martha's Vineyard, the state's highest court intervened, delaying the proceeding for at least several weeks and temporarily awarding Edward M. Kennedy a legal victory. Justice Paul Reardon ordered a postponement until the full seven-member supreme court, now in recess, could hear arguments on whether an inquest governed by Judge Boyle's ground rules would be a violation of Kennedy's constitutional rights...
...Tristan und Isolde, she observes, was abandoned as un-performable, "yet nowadays no dramatic soprano can be considered accomplished if she is incapable of singing an Isolde." Beverly Sills, who sang many modern roles before going on to fame in Italian bel canto operas, endorses Nilsson's and Reardon's sensible attitudes. "Contemporary opera kills your voice," she says flatly, "only if your voice is sick to begin with...
Chirps and Grunts. Reardon's voice, at any rate, shows no sign of decay, even though his repertory comprises 90 roles, 30 of them contemporary and 18 of them recerit premieres. In some ways, this versatility is as much a triumph of brain as of voice. "When word gets around that you can read something other than a C-major scale," he says, "people seem to pigeonhole you. I enjoy it, though. I'd go out of my mind if I sang nothing but Tosca and Traviata." Reardon pragmatically divides compositions into only two categories: music and nonmusic...
Composers, directors and conductors from Santa Fe to New York are consistent Reardon admirers-which is fairly remarkable for a Manhattan-born boy who started out to be a bank president. After studying business administration in college for three days, Reardon switched to music, "because those kids were much more fun. I tried to be a pianist," he recalls, "but my hands sweat when I'm nervous, and when your hands sweat as a pianist, forget it. It's like Niagara Falls." He also experimented with composition, but was swiftly urged by his teacher to take up singing...
...Reardon's good looks and versatile voice might well have doomed him to a career as a Broadway leading man. Beginning in 1952, he moved between Broadway, summer stock and grand opera with bewildering frequency. At one point, he alternated between the New York City Opera and Broadway (including, at various times, New Faces of '56 and Do Re Mi) before finally joining the Metropolitan Opera in 1965 as a principal artist. Now 39, he finds his voice deepening and growing bigger. Two years ago he began to work with former Met Soprano Margaret Harshaw, focusing and darkening...