Those operas and others vanished with the final eight weeks of the Met’s season. So we asked some of the singers who had been waiting years to perform them to give us some musical phrases that they — and we — lost. Here are their voices, and edited excerpts from the conversation

Seattle Weekly called him a “heroic, Italian-style tenor to the marrow,” declaring his voice, “bold, bright, resonant and effortlessly hall-filling.” He’s easily among the top tenors on the operatic stage today with a voice that is expansive, powerful and full of color and depth. New York City native Brian Jagde is a supernova among the celestial bodies swirling about the operatic universe today.

The first thing to know about Brian Jagde is that his name is pronounced "Jade," like the jewel. He is definitely sparkling, in personality and in talent. Though the prizewinning tenor's earlier education included computer science and business, Jagde seemed destined to be an opera singer.