A Tenor Who Rhymes

At one point in La Boheme, Rodolfo, the tenor lover, sings out: "Who am I?--I am a poet ... In poverty I yet indulge myself like a Grand Seigneur in rhymes . . ." When Richard Tucker sings those lines he can partly mean them: in his eight years at the Metropolitan Opera, he has been privately amusing himself by writing doggerel. Last week Tucker gave out some samples:

Dear Mimi, sweet Mimi Of La Boheme fame, Face, pretty as a picture, And gosh! What a frame!

Carmen could be charmin', Knittin' and darnin', But we prefer, most of us guys, A Carmen who's pulling the wool over our eyes.

Poor disappointed Don Carlo, Wanting a Queen for his doll-o, Found that his midnight visitor Was only the Grand Inquisitor.

And a final one for the boss:

Ode to Rudolf Bing "For he I sing!"

Says Doggereleer Tucker, "I've got a whole drawer of them."

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