On the recommendation of a colleague, I found this gem of an interview from 1995 with the late and great tenor Jerry Hadley. At just under half an hour, it’s not a big time commitment to listen to the whole thing. But I love what he says starting at 3:16, which is where I’ve cued up this video below.

“I believe that one does not learn how to sing solely from a voice teacher…The balance that has to exist between a person acting as your guide, as your partner, as well as your own taking of responsibility as someone who wants to be a singer, has gotten all bent out of shape. What happens is that singers, aspiring singers, no longer (in general) take the responsibility to develop a frame of reference. Style cannot be learned by having someone say, ‘now sing that this way.’ Style is something that you develop by listening to people do it. And how anybody can pretend that they’re trying to be a great opera singer, who has never listened to Caruso, to Tetrazzini, to Claudio Muzio, the list goes on and on and on. It just defies logic to me.‘”