LaGrange Daily News
March 22, 2007
By Andrea Lovejoy, Editor
After more than 20 years of studying, practicing, auditioning and performing opera roles around the world, Troup County native Michael Hendrick had 15 minutes’ notice that he would be making his Metropolitan Opera debut.
Hendrick, 39, sang the lead tenor role of Menelas at the famed New York City venue on opening night of Strauss’ “Die Aegyptishe Helena” (“The Egyptian Helen”) on March 15. He had been scheduled as the “firstcover,” or understudy, but the other tenor became ill, giving Hendrick a surprise chance.
He sang the role again Monday night for the same reason and is waiting to hear if he’ll be needed Friday, the next performance.
Earlier last week, Hendrick had replaced the ailing Torsten Kerl for the final dress rehearsal, a gala 11 a.m. affair with a full house of invited guests and patrons.
“That was my first time to sing onstage at the Met, other than my original audition back in November 2005,” he said.
The unexpected opening night opportunity was almost as rare as the opera itself. “Egyptian Helen” is a seldom-performed work based on Helen of Troy, last sung at the Met in 1928.
In an e-mail to his parents, Rogene and Robert Hendrick and sister Serena Norris, all of LaGrange, Michael Hendrick described the scenario that unfolded when the Met’s artistic administrator and general director suddenly appeared at his dressing room, informing him that Kerl, who had sung the first act, was unable to continue.
“I was already warmed up. … I had just enough time to slap on makeup and throw on my costume,” he wrote.
The singer did take time to fire off a text message to his wife, Nancy: “Going on for (Act) two.” She messaged back, “Are you serious?” but he was already on stage.
The performance was a huge success, he said.
“Some people in the crowd actually yelled out bravos and others screamed when they announced at the top of Act Two that Michael Hendrick was replacing the other tenor,” he said.
That surprised him, he said. Because he hadn’t expected to perform, he had no family or close friends in the audience.
“For my bows after the performance, the place roared when I came forward both times. Standing ovations,” he recalled.
Reviews of the performance were mixed – some less than kind, others quite favorable.
A New York Times reviewer wrote: “Making your Met debut in such tense circumstances has to be intimidating. Still, Mr. Hendrick saved the day, singing with husky sound and energy.”
One of Hendrick’s favorite memories came immediately after the performance as he worried out loud that he did not have a tie to wear to the after-concert party.
“I wore a suit and a dark blue dress shirt to the opera, but not a tie. I did not think I would need it. Well, one of the patrons heard me talking about this outside my dressing room and offered his tie to me. It was a perfect color match.”
Hendrick, who performed locally as first trumpet in the band and a choral soloist at Troup High School, comes from a musical family. His grandfather, former LaGrange resident W.A. Grier, sang in a quartet here, and his mother is active in the Bel Canto women’s chorus and La-Grange Civic Chorale.
He graduated from Berry College in 1989 and earned a master’s degree at Cincinnati Conservatory of Music in 1991, followed by an artist’s degree, also from Cincinnati, in 1993.
Hendrick has performed with some of the world’s most respected opera companies and orchestras. He has received much critical praise for his appearances as Don José in “Carmen;” with LIV Festival Ópera de A Coruña in Galicia, Spain; Palacio de Festivales in Santander in Cantabria, Spain; New York City Opera and Opera Pacific in Costa Mesa, Calif.; as Bacchus in “Ariadne auf Naxos” with Pittsburgh Opera, L’Opera de Montréal and Seattle Opera; as the title role in “Parsifal,” with Lyric Opera of Chicago; as Lennie Small in Carlisle Floyd’s “Of Mice and Men” with Washington National Opera; and in Male Chorus in “The Rape of Lucretia” with New York City Opera.
He has appeared at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw as Midas in Strauss’ “Die Liebe der Danae” with Radio Filharmonisch Orkest Holland, and at Washington’s Kennedy Center as the title role in “La clemenza di Tito” with the National Symphony Orchestra.
His Czech repertoire includes appearances as Laca in Janacek’s “Jenufa” with Asociacion Bilbaina de Amigos de la Opera in Bizkaia, Spain, and as Zivny in Janacek’s “Osud” with Bard Summerscape Festival in Annandaleon-Hudson, N.Y.
In Russian opera, he has appeared as Count Vodémon in Tchaikovsky’s “Iolanta” in New York, as Levko in Rimsky-Korsakov’s “May Night” with Sarasota Opera and Shuisky in “Boris Godunov” with Milwaukee Symphony. His Hungarian repertoire includes Dvorak’s “Psalmus Hungaricus” with Detroit Symphony.
Upcoming are roles in Mahler’s “Das Klagende Lied” with Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest; Menelaus (first-cover) in Strauss’ “Die Aegyptische Helena” with the Metropolitan Opera; “Das Klagende Lied” and Kongold’s “Das Wunder der Heliane,” both with the London Philharmonic.
This fall, he’ll be performing in London.
But his international career and extensive performing credits made his Met debut even sweeter, Hendrick said.
“It is a dream, the whole thing,” he said. “This has been a wonderful, exciting opportunity for me.”
Andrea Lovejoy can be reached at alovejoy@ lagrangenews.com or at (706) 884-7311, Ext. 237.