American operatic tenor Jerry Hadley has died, apparently having taken his own life:
Jerry Hadley, a tenor who was noted for his bright lyric voice, lively acting and adventurous choice of repertory and whose career in the 1980s seemed one of the most promising in American opera, died yesterday in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. He was 55.
His death was announced by Celia P. Novo, a longtime family friend. He had been on life support at a Poughkeepsie hospital since July 10, when he shot himself in the head with an air rifle, causing severe brain damage. The shooting occurred at a house in Clinton Corners, N.Y., near Poughkeepsie, where he lived with a female companion, the New York state police said.
Friends and colleagues said Mr. Hadley suffered from severe depression, financial difficulties, troubled personal relationships and professional setbacks.
Mr. Hadley made his professional debut in 1976 in a Lake George Opera production of Mozart’s “Così Fan Tutte.†Two years later he was heard by Beverly Sills, who was in line to take charge of the New York City Opera. She immediately offered him a contract, and he made his City Opera debut the next year.
He was really the preeminent American tenor of his time. Mr. Hadley was an Illinois farm kid and graduated from the University of Illinois. The Urbana-Champaign News-Gazette has a particularly nice, intimate obit, clearly considering him a native son.
Very, very sad. People in performance careers—athletes, opera singers—are particularly susceptible to problems as they age. Their careers are careers of youth or relative youth. And the very qualities that helped to boost a man like Mr. Hadley to the pinnacle of his field may have rendered him less able to weather the transition. So sad. There was so much else he could have given.
Other obits:
Oh man, this is a loss. I did know that Hadley had to battle depression, but I didn’t know the details.