Marcus Haddock plans comeback performance Sunday in benefit for Civic Morning Musicals

Peter Chen/The Post-StandardTenor Marcus Haddock, who lives in Skaneateles, suffered two strokes in 2009 and hasn't performed since then. He will present a recital and lecture, "The Art of Bel Canto," Sunday as a benefit for Civic Morning Musicals.

The world of grand opera once seemed wide open to Marcus Haddock.

The Skaneateles-based tenor had performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, La Scala in Milan and the Royal Opera House in London.

In March 2009, his schedule to sing at opera houses worldwide was booked through 2013.

Then, one day that month, he walked into the kitchen of his home to speak with his wife, Kathleen, while she was preparing dinner. He recalls sinking slowly to the floor and being unable to pull himself upright. Haddock was having a stroke. Within 24 hours, he suffered two massive strokes.

By the time of the second stroke, his parents had come up from his native Texas. They realized they might have to make a decision — whether to bury their oldest son here or back there.

Haddock survived but was partially paralyzed on his left side for almost three months.

For the last three years, Haddock has worked to regain his health, physically and mentally.

And, of course, there’s his voice.

He has not performed publicly since the stroke or walked into a concert hall. The tenor takes a tentative first step Sunday when he gives a lecture and recital, as a fundraiser for Civic Morning Musicals at Everson Museum of Art.

“I’m hoping for the first time I can sing and have fun doing it,” he says sitting in a chair against a wall of floor-to-ceiling windows in the living room of his home overlooking Skaneateles Lake. A baby grand piano hugs one corner against the burnt-yellow wall.

“And I’m also knowing it’s not going to be perfect in any way and I’m just going to do the best that I can,” he says. “If I can just keep my brain focused on it, I’ll be fine. I have the strength to do it. I just have to do it.”

Philip Eisenman is a former Civic Morning Musicals board member who has become a friend and who is studying singing with Haddock. He has encouraged the tenor to believe that the fundraiser and its setting is the place to begin his return to public performances.

Before the stroke, during a 25-year professional career, Haddock's singing engagements kept him away from home 300 days out of the year. He sang opposite Spanish tenor Placido Domingo in Italy and Germany.
Local audiences heard him sing with the former Syracuse Symphony Orchestra in 1985 and 1987 and also at the Skaneateles Festival in 1987 and 1997.

Thoughts of resuming his career consume Haddock, who is 54.

“I think about it every day,” he says. “I just don’t know yet what’s going to happen as far as whether I can step back into the operatic career. The voice may work, but the body’s not there yet.

“You kind of have to have all of it,” he says. “So I don’t know if the operatic world is going to wait around for me.”

He has had to learn to sing again. His diaphragm, soft palate and tongue, all crucial in singing, were affected. “I’ve had to redo my technique,” he says.

Early attempts to regain his voice were frustrating, especially as he prepared to sing a familiar song at a church service while visiting his parents in Texas.

“I couldn’t get it. I couldn’t get the pitch,” he says. “I could not get it to work, and I was devastated. I just thought: What in the world, to have lost this.”

Besides pitch, he worked to find his tone, pulse and rhythm.

He and Kathleen, who will accompany him on piano Sunday, were rehearsing with the possibility of a singing engagement at Tanglewood in August 2011 when another problem surfaced.

Haddock experienced pseudobulbar affect, in which stroke victims can cry or laugh uncontrollably and unpredictably for no reason. He knew this would interfere with future rehearsals, so he tabled plans for the performance.

Haddock’s language facility, including his fluency in German and familiarity with French and Italian for opera roles, was not affected. During an evaluation to determine the extent of brain damage, he responded to questions first in English and then threw in some French and German words, to reassure himself.

He admits he was showing off. “I wanted them to know I still had some facility, I wasn’t stupid.”

The once burly singer today walks with a slight rocking motion. He says his left leg has returned to full use. It is his left arm, which he cradles with his right arm, and his left hand that lag behind. He can’t open his hand or extend fingers, although he can grip items pretty well.

Problems occur if he carries a bag and takes a step with his left leg. Haddock drops the bag, as his brain cannot tackle more than one activity.

“It requires complete focus on the task at hand,” he says. Haddock has been told this timeline for stroke recovery is common.

A confessed perfectionist, Haddock says this trait has had a “backfiring” effect as he has made strides in the last three years.

“I have to make myself celebrate the small ones because the bigger ones may never come anymore,” he says. “I think I’m running out of time, basically.”

While he waits and works on his rehabilitation, Haddock has been teaching singing. One of his students landed a major role in Skaneateles High School’s production of “The Phantom of the Opera.”

Her success has brought new young students to his home studio. He also teaches once a week at Hobart and William Smith Colleges.

Teaching was never in Haddock’s plans. From his days at Baylor University, when he switched from pre-med to vocal studies, Haddock has been intent on a career singing opera. But he’s under no illusions about his situation at present.

“I have to try to find a job,” he says.

He believes losing his voice makes him a better teacher because he knows how the voice functions and how much work it does when singing.

Haddock and his wife, an accomplished pianist and Syracuse University instructor, have been living in Skaneateles for 16 years. He fell in love with the lakeside village when he first performed at the Skaneateles Festival in 1989.

The couple had lived in Europe for 10 years and decided for professional reasons to move. They considered Paris and Boston but settled on Skaneateles. As long as an airport was handy for his busy schedule each year, Haddock says he could live anywhere.

“Unfortunately, I had no idea of the snow,” he says.

During conversation, one can detect Haddock’s soft Texas drawl at times.

"I have to really concentrate to get rid of it," he says. The son of a Southern Baptist minister, Haddock grew up in West Texas and played high school football. He says his Seminole High School was mentioned in the 1990 book "Friday Night Lights," by H.G. "Buzz" Bissinger.

Haddock’s high school was so small, he often was on the field for the entire game as both a fullback and linebacker. He says it wasn’t unusual to play before 5,000 fans on a Friday night. One homecoming, Haddock also split his time in the marching band with his trumpet. He was in a rock band in high school and held a summer job as a radio disc jockey in Frederick, Okla.

Haddock has been forced to give up riding his beloved Yamaha FJ1300 motorcycle and sailing on the lake because of physical limitations. Those are minor losses compared to the looming possibility of never performing his favorites operatic roles, as Hoffmann in "The Tales of Hoffman," Cavaradossi in "Tosca" and Don Jose in "Carmen."

“It’s a juncture right now,” he says. “I don’t want to give it up yet because I like to have that goal out there. I want to dream that dream of coming back and singing that has kept me going through a lot of the depression that I have fought.”

THE DETAILS

What: "The Art of Bel Canto," presented by tenor Marcus Haddock and pianist Kathleen Haddock. Benefit concert for Civic Morning Musicals.

When: 2 p.m. Sunday.

Where: Hosmer Auditorium, Everson Museum of Art, 401 Harrison St., Syracuse.

Tickets: $25, general; $15, students with ID.

For more information: Call 699-5856 or go to civicmorningmusicals.org