Our third performance went extremely well. From my perspective of how I felt during the performance, it was my best vocal performance so far in the run; I could have run the Bacchus scene again that night, which is a good sign for me, that I'm singing with good fundamentals. After the second performance, there was a gathering of people who had attended the performance, and each of the singers came forward to answer questions. I was introduced as a "Heldentenor", mostly because many heldentenors do sing the role of Bacchus, however to say my voice is a heldentenor voice would be too limiting, because my voice is effective in many different types of roles. As far a category for my voice, I am a tenor- yes, a tenor who can sing Bacchus, but a tenor. For example, this year I also sang Pinkerton in "Madama Butterfly", and also the title role in "Faust". The other night I sat down to watch some DVD segments that were recorded of some of the scenes from that production of "Faust", that I just received in the mail, and it was so gratifying to watch and hear me sing that role which is so different in style.

This is an issue I have constantly dealt with. My "issue", which in reality is a blessing, is that I have been successful in a deep variety of roles and styles over the years. This does not always bode well for those in the opera profession, who want to categorize a singer as this type or that type. For example, in roles in the English language, I have often been praised for my ability to convey the English language understandably, so that the audience can hear and understand what I'm saying. You can go to my website, http://www.michaelhendrick.com, and select the "Press" page to see what the press has written about my over the years. My last role in English was Britten's "The Rape of Lucretia" from New York City Opera, directed by Christopher Alden, where I sang the role of the Male Chorus. I have also been successful in several roles in the Slavic languages of both Russian and Czech. This puts me in an advantageous position of staying busy internationally in many different styles of singing, which ultimately is more healthy for my voice in the long run.

Several people told me during the third performance that they were reading and enjoying the Pittsburgh Opera OperaBlog! That was wonderful to hear, and although it is almost time for my contributions to end on that site, http://www.pittsburghopera.org, it has been fun to be a part of the initial stages of their new publicity vehicle. I think everyone in Pittsburgh should be extremely proud of their opera company here in Pittsburgh, and its role in the community. I have been proud to be a part of it.