Remembering Robert Gay, Northwestern

Concerning The New York City Opera.

Size it back to Minimalism.
Robert Gay, at Northwestern, came out on stage and said, "Can you imagine".
And we did and we could see it.
Originally, Opera did not have Cecil B. de Mille.
We are talking about great singing and telling the story.

How wonderful it was to see Bob Gay's name in your posting today!  I don't know when you were at Northwestern, but I was there from 1961 to 1965.  I was a theatre major, but I spent as much, if not more, of my time in the big white building as I did in Anne May Swift.  And I think I learned more about how to be a skilled actor fromGrigg Fountain than anyone else -- how to listen, how to hear major versus minor keys in speech as well as music (thanks, too, to Dr. Hilda Fisher)...butmost of all, I learned how to be a human being. 

Both Bob (and Nancy) Gay and Grigg (and Helen) Fountain retired to New Mexico, and I visited with both of them there.  In fact, I arrived in Albuquerque within an hour or so of Bob's death.  I rode a motorcycle as my sole means of transportation in those days and was on my way home to San Diego from CharlestonSC that June, and I had ridden a long day because I knew Bob was quite ill.  I try to call Nancy every year on or near the anniversary of that sad day.

For Bob Gay, I sang in the chorus for THE RAKE'S PROGRESS, the role of Monostatos in MAGIC FLUTE...and for Grigg, almost four full years in the Chapel Choir (maybe we knew some of the same people.)

I was so glad to see you talk about his work.  Many thanks for lighting up my day.

 

HK