Sometimes referred to as "the singing policeman," tenor Daniel Rodriguez hopes to dispel a myth Thursday in Munster.
He not only will open the 62nd season series of six Munster concerts but also will perform in the first of 117 cities he will visit through May 2010.
According to the myth, he suddenly discovered after 9/11 that he had a first-rate singing voice and began pursuing a music career.
The reality is he performed in theater as child, made his professional acting debut at age 12, and singing debut in Carnegie Hall at age 17.
While many aspiring actors and singers wait tables to earn income, he needed a full-time job with benefits to support his family. So he became a policeman and spent 10 years with the NYPD, but never let go of his dream to work in music.
"I had compassion for people and helped them deal with everyday problems," he says. "A police officer has a front seat to people at the worst times in their life." His biggest test came the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.
"It was a great awakening for me. I had thought of myself as a singer moonlighting as a policeman, but now I realized what the oath I had taken to serve and protect really meant."
Rodriguez' big break came the following year when the great Spanish tenor Placido Domingo accepted him, at age 38, into Domingo's first young artists' class in Washington, D. C., a program comparable to the Ryan Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago.
What did Rodriguez learn from Domingo? "I learned I can do anything I set my mind to. I have a versatile enough voice to succeed in whatever style I choose." His program titled "Spirit of America" will take concertgoers on a journey through his life through music.
His selections, not restricted to opera numbers, will include "This is the Moment" (from "Jekyll & Hyde") "Bring Them Home" (from "Les Miserables"), the latter a slight twist on the original title "Bring Him Home," with "them" referring to our troops abroad.
Rodriguez will be joined by his wife Marla Kavanaugh and her twin sister Marissa Dikkenberg. Both were child stars in New Zealand. Marla later focused on opera, Marissa on musical theater.
Marla and Marissa's new CD "Songbirds," which Rodriguez describes as "adult contemporary easy listening," will be on sale at the concert.
Marla will join her husband in the love duet from the 1937 Jeanette MacDonald/Nelson Eddy film "Maytime." Marissa will sing Irving Berlin's "You're not Sick, You're Just in Love," which Rodriguez' Puerto Rican mother used to sing to him as a lullaby.
Accompanying the vocalists is pianist Gail Smith, who is also a composer and author of children's books.
(Accompanying the entire group on their tour is Marla and Daniel's seven-month old baby Alexandra).
Tenor Daniel Rodriguez (and more), presented by NWI Concert Association/Munster, 7:30 p.m. Thursday
WHERE: Munster High School Auditorium, 8808 Columbia Ave., Munster
COST: A limited number of $25 tickets will be available at the door. Arrive at 6:45 p.m.
FYI: (219) 923-8456, (219) 322-7491 or munsterconcerts.org
