Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Opera tenor whose solo CD topped the classical charts, known for his rich voice and Harlem roots.
On the island
Eight records
Ella is is one of my favorite artists, and I feel like she was put on the earth to sing. There are very few people that make me feel the way that Ella does when she sings. She takes me to a different place.
Aretha started singing in the church, and that was really the first place where I really responded to music.
This song reminds me of Saturday mornings at my house. And each Saturday morning, we would wake up and we'd watch Soul Train, and we would put on the radio as loud as we could, and we would clean the house.
Vissi d'arte (from Tosca)Favourite
I remember the first time I saw [Leontyne Price] was on a laser disc. ... And she started to sing, and my jaw dropped to the floor because the sheer beauty of her voice bowled me over.
It was the first time where I really liked my name. Growing up in Harlem there were not many Noahs, and I was almost embarrassed at my name, and this was really the first time that I was I was proud and was happy to be be called Noah because Noah was a great person.
Jazz and blues was always playing in my Uncle Sonny's house, and it brings back a lot of fond memories of being home with my family.
I chose this song because it reminds me of my sister Belinda, who I call BB.
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:25What do you think [the opera establishment's] view of you is?
I think that they view me as kind of an interesting choice. But I've always been viewed that way. I mean the first time I told my mom I wanted to become an opera singer, she said, A what? An opera singer, that's for older people, that's not really for young person. But I was drawn personally to the theatrical side of it.
Presenter asks
2:48Why didn't you go into acting? Was it simply because you knew you had this magnificent instrument of a voice that you wanted to use?
At the time I was heavy. I was a bigger kid and I didn't want to be pigeonholed into the comedic roles, to be perfectly honest. So I thought I'd choose an easier choice to be an opera singer, which is not really an easier choice.
Presenter asks
12:07How [did your mother] protect you from the danger in Harlem?
My mom, because she worked forty plus hours a week, she enrolled me into school downtown near her job. In New York it's called zone schooling, where you require to go to school near your home. ... She pulled some strings and she enrolled me in school downtown.
The keepsakes
The book
Because I have a lot of favorite books, but I thought if I can't just keep rereading them over and I think I would get bored. But one of the hobbies that I have that developed being on the road is cooking. Each day or I would probably go through different options of what I would love to eat and I'd love to take the toy of cooking with me.
The luxury
Presenter asks
14:56Have you thought about tracing [your father], talking to him, finding out what he's like?
I did. Then I thought about it. I thought, you know, if I ... I really never missed something I didn't really have. I mean, he brought so much pain to my mom and my sister and he was not the nicest person. ... I don't want to reopen those chapters to bring that hurt back into their lives.
Presenter asks
18:52Speaking very honestly, did [the people at Juilliard] think that was about your voice, or did they think that was about your background?
I don't know, I can't say. But what I can say is there are not many tenors singing romantic literature who looked like me. ... Being black, absolutely. And I think because my voice sounded not traditional, it was hard for people to place me in traditional roles.
Presenter asks
26:36How is your romantic life offstage?
No, this sadly, no. But I tell myself, these are these are the years if I just push myself these next five, maybe seven years ... but I'm open to it, but it's really difficult to maintain anything when I'm flying to different countries. But I know it will come at the right time.
“I still am quite shy as a person. I still very much feel like that chubby boy who was really a bookworm and who really didn't like very much attention.”
“Harlem was the first place where black people essentially made a community for themselves. But growing up in New York in the late 70s was also a dangerous place. It was coming out of a really dangerous time in terms of crack addiction.”
“That check enabled me to go to the Aspen Festival of Music. And it was the summer of my life. The space that I didn't find at Juilliard, I found at Aspen to really explore who I was as a person and also as a musician.”
“My big break came when I was an Adlerfellow, which was a young artist at the San Francisco Opera, and I was understudying the role of Verdi's Macduff … One of the performances, the lead tenor, got sick. … I went on and … I felt like I proved to everyone that I belong here. This stage is mine.”
“I knew what it's like to serve people food, to show people watches, to … I know what it's like on the other side of it.”
“I didn't experience racism at home … it was when I left that it came into focus.”