I had never seen an opera in my life I'd never heard an opera in my life I'd never heard a symphony orchestra, et cetera. But before he started working with me, he said, "Do you know you have a voice to sing opera?" And I said, and this is really true, I said, "What's opera?" Because I come from a small town: Centerville, Iowa. He discovered me at the University of Iowa in 1961 he came there and worked with me for two years. Simon Estes: Well, I can tell you who that person was. If you've seen my interviews with other artists, you know that I always start off with one question, which is: who brought you to your first opera? So it's in the context of our looking backward at our 50th anniversary that we just wanted to connect with some real titans in the field. And we also wanted to create an oral history project where I speak to at least 50 people who have been real pillars in many ways as singers, directors, conductors, designers, as patrons of opera, and really shaped opera over the last half century. And part of what we're doing with our 50th anniversary is to establish here, at the National Opera Center, a Hall of Fame, and we're so delighted that you are in our first group of inductees long delayed induction because of COVID. But our 50th anniversary at OPERA America was in 2020 and you can imagine that our 50th anniversary celebration was somewhat stunted. It's just remarkable how he goes on and on. I only know that every time I wake up, there's yet another role he's doing. Someone told me just recently: the only singer who's sung more roles than I have is Placido Domingo. You probably heard me tell Vincent - a lot of people don't know - I've sung 102 roles. I learned the repertoire there and it was wonderful that some of those performances were with you. Scorca: My record at The Met when I was an intern there during my college years was 41 performances in 44 days. And you grew up in New York, so you know everything about New York and The Met and opera. Simon Estes: Well, I'm honored to speak with you also. And I am a born and brought up New Yorker and I attended many of your performances at The Metropolitan Opera and I'm just so honored to be able to speak to you today.
It is such an honor to be in front of the camera with you.
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