TEMP WORK.(opera singers)(Brief Article)

Back when I was naive enough to think I stood a chance at an opera career -- as a singer, that is -- I paid for voice lessons and bided my time before being "discovered" by waiting tables at a restaurant in New Haven. It was the first job I had after college. Occasionally, when the mood struck, I would serenade my customers with "Be My Love," sung with a German accent (after my favorite tenor, Fritz Wunderlich, whose recording of it I'd memorized). After one particularly spirited rendition, an elderly lady with rinsed hair and garish lipstick took me aside and hissed, "Don't quit your day job, kid."

Since then, I've learned that many of the world's most celebrated opera singers have resorted to some very odd jobs indeed to pay the rent and/or the voice coach. Fritz Wunderlich, in fact, is a classic example; he was singing out loud, apparently very loud, while working in a baker's shop. A music-lover heard him from the street, and the rest is hype -- I mean, history.

Mezzo Jennifer Larmore tackled several small jobs before achieving fame at the Met. "Every young artist has to hang up their pride, come down to earth and get a job to make ends meet," she says. "I worked in a gourmet cheese shop, waited tables and took care of elderly people as a nurse's aide. The worst job I ever had was testing candy at a chocolate shop. One of my tasks was to break big slabs of toffee into little bite-sized pieces -- not a perfect job for a confirmed chocolate-lover!" The tough breaks were building-blocks to sweet success. "All those early job experiences taught me about human nature and about myself. They were like potholes along the way, but I survived."

Eileen Farrell had to take a job as a salesgirl at a ladies' accessory shop in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, before getting her first big break on radio. It was a taxing situation. `All I wanted to do was stay away from the cash register," she recalls with a laugh. "If someone returned something, well, that was the bitter end." Did she ever doubt that she'd get back on her feet and make it? "It never entered my mind," she says. "If you're going to be a singer, honey, nothing is going to get in your way."

That's a philosophy that tenor Richard Tucker might have affirmed. Everyone knows he was a talented cantor before turning in his robes for costumes. But did you know that he pounded the pavement selling silk linings used in fur coats? He had a lot in common with Leonard Warren, who slaved away in his family's wholesale fur business, sorting raw skins by color. If he hadn't been let go for singing on the job, he might have turned into a poster boy for PETA, rather than the brilliant baritone he became.

Below is a list of ten other stars who tackled curious professions. Can you guess who the opera singer is?

1) A celebrated turn-of-the-century American singer, this young artist earned lunch money by working at The Youth's Companion, a children's magazine. She ...