Daniel Rodriguez

“Life can be wonderful, especially when it bestows a natural talent on an individual and also endows that person with the perseverance to see a dream come true. Daniel Rodriguez was born with a beautiful tenor voice. His success is a source of great joy to me because he truly deserves it.” — Placido Domingo Daniel Rodriguez, “America’s Beloved Tenor,” has earned the respect and admiration of not only Maestro Domingo, but of millions of opera fans around the country, and of those who simply love beautiful singing. A New York-based singer from an early age — he made his Carnegie Hall debut at age 17 — Rodriguez became known in the late 1990s as “The Singing Policeman,” and in the wake of September 11, as a source of great comfort to a grieving nation. “I was the singer that moonlighted as a cop,” Rodriguez chuckles. “They couldn’t shut me up in the department — the guys in the locker room would ask me to sing when we were getting changed to go. Everybody knew I was moonlighting. The most common phrase I got was ‘What the hell are you doing here?’” A longtime opera lover who’s religiously studied bel canto singing, Rodriguez’ pre-NYPD gigs consisted mostly of musical theater and Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. He longed to be taken seriously as an operatic tenor. A 1999 audition with the Metropolitan Opera, arranged by Rodriguez fan Rudy Guiliani, went badly. The auditioner only allowed him to sing two notes. “He said ‘I don’t understand what makes a New York City police officer think he can become an opera singer,’” Rodriguez says. “It was that elitist attitude that really turned me off — like, ‘hey, you don’t belong here, boy.’ “And in that moment I said ‘To hell with opera,’ I’ll stay doing what I enjoy. But there was always that desire to see what the full potential of my voice could be.” Enter Placido Domingo. “The rumor went around that the mayor sent a police officer to sing, Placido heard about it and talked to the mayor, and the mayor told him ‘This kid really has it. I don’t understand what happened.’” On Sept. 11, 2001 Rodriguez, like many NYPD officers, was hard at work on rescue operations. He remembers watching the first tower start to fall less than a block from where he stood. Over the days and weeks that followed, he was called upon to sing patriotic songs at one memorial service after another. At “A Prayer for America,” Rodriguez, says, he was introduced to Domingo. “He said ‘I’ve been waiting to hear you. I’ve seen you on television; you have a beautiful voice.’” On Dec. 1, Rodriguez returned to the Met to officially audition for Domingo, who was starting a Young Artists program in Washington, D.C. The second time proved the charm. “I started to warm up,” Rodriguez recalls. “I was singing ‘Be My Love’ when Maestro Domingo walked in, and in the middle of my B-flat the maestro applauded me. It was a dream come true.” Domingo invited the young tenor to work under him in the new program, which would last three months. “That same day, I had to be at Yankee Stadium for the playoffs. That was the night that the Yankees won the pennant. So I leave the Met, in uniform, and a car takes me directly to Yankee Stadium.” After performing the National Anthem for an emotional crowd, Rodriguez strolled across the field and approached Mayor Guiliani, who was seated in his regular box by the Yankee dugout. “I tell him what had just happened, because this was all his doing. I told him Domingo had auditioned me, and wanted me to go to D.C. for three months. “He said ‘You should do that!’ And I said ‘But you have to give me the time off.’ “And the mayor said ‘Whatever you want, you got it.’” Now retired from the police force, Rodriguez has launched a successful singing career. With two albums and several world tours behind him, he is becoming well-known for his opera, popular and spiritual music. This spring, he made a triumphant debut as the clown in “Pagliacci” with New Hampshire’s Granite State Opera Company. And he is constantly in demand, from coast to coast, to sing patriotic songs, to remind America of its strength and resilience. “Hopefully,” Rodriguez says, “the things that I do are having a positive effect wherever I go.”