Former long-hauler makes N.Y.C. Met opera debut

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Carl TannerCarl Tanner (pictured) worked as a long-haul driver before making moves toward pursuing a career in what New York Times writer David Belcher painted as his calling in a piece published in the Times yesterday, available online here.

Tanner, by the terms of his contract as stand-by in the role of Dick Johnson in Puccini’s “La Fanciulla del West,” will perform the role alone, scheduled, at least once. It’s happening this evening, and it marks his debut in the highest halls of opera in the United States; his route there is a story not to be missed, full of on-highway coincidences, overheard opera singing behind the wheel of a Class 8, a series of signs from beyond, and an unsettling stint as a bounty hunter that led the former trucker Tanner to move to New York City in 1990 at the age of 28 to pursue his dream. Click on the picture of Tanner here for Belcher’s full story, and join me in wishing Tanner luck tonight.