Singing for his supper

Marshall Richards says he began singing in public as "a necessity thing." His life as a pizza delivery guy wasn't exactly soul-

nurturing, and he knew something had to change.

"It was such a degrading job," he says. "I was tearing up my car, eating pizza all the time — which was really bad for my health — and the whole thing was bad for my self-esteem. So, I walked out."

His timing couldn't have been worse. The recession had landed, and jobs were scarce.

"I didn't have anything," he says, "so I went down to Cathedral Square one Sunday, like two months ago, and started singing. It's been amazing. People seem to really like me."

That's putting it mildly. The 24-year-old Richards has become a mini-celebrity, earning a nice piece of change for his vocal efforts. It's not unusual for a smiling onlooker to drop a "fiver" into his box.

"It pays better than any job I could have right now without a college degree," he says. "I could make $30 an hour as long as there's people out there."

Richards, a lyric tenor, used to make $60 an hour when he sang along Royal Street and other venues in New Orleans. Of course, he had to contend with detractors such as the guy in Jackson Square who laughed at him and said: "I'd pay you to stop."

Self-appointed critics notwithstanding, Richards says he hopes to parlay this experience into a full-fledged operatic career. A Mobile native, he attended the University of New Orleans and the University of Southern Mississippi before he returned to his hometown and enrolled at the University of South Alabama. There he studies voice with Thomas Rowell, Ph.D., an operatic talent in his own right.

"I was born loving music," says Richards, whose passion was fueled by music class at Old Shell Road Elementary and his grandparents' love of the classics. "As a kid I would sit in their living room and point at the stereo and say, 'I wanna hear Mozart!'"

Richards didn't sing opera until he was 18, but as a youth he sang with Mobile's Singing Children and at St. Paul's Episcopal Church. In middle school, he began playing various instruments, including the saxophone, drums and bass, which he continued through high school in ska, rock and punk bands.

"Since I moved back home, everything has been just awesome," he says. "Everybody's been super-nice to me, and now all I do is sing." He works part-time at St. Paul's and earns a stipend as part of the Mobile Opera Developing Artists Program.

That is, when he isn't entertaining passers-by with tunes such as "Una furtiva lagrima" from Act II, Scene VIII of Donizetti's "Elixir of Love"; or "La Donna ý Mobile" from Verdi's "Rigoletto." Richards also performs a few century-old Neopolitan street songs.

Richards performed in Mobile Opera's "Love & Lust" concert at the Saenger Theatre. He will appear in the USA Opera Theatre concert in a duet from Massenet's "Manon," the quartet from Puccini's "La Rondine" and the sextet from Mozart's "Don Giovanni." In April 2010 he will portray Nanki-Poo in the university's production of "The Mikado."

His pizza-delivery days well behind him, Richards looks forward to a regular gig as an opera leading man.

"It kind of feels like, you know, then I won't have to have a real job," he says with a laugh. "It's a lot of work, but it doesn't feel like work to me."