Gone

I've been getting numerous hits in the past few days from searches on tenor Ryan Smith, whom I noted in the 2007 Met Council Finals and last season's Ernani. Back then I'd guessed he was bound for the Lindemann program, but life turned out differently. Instead of the Met's young artist program he headed to Lyric Opera of Chicago's. Then, per a story in today's Chicago Tribune,

[a] day after Mr. Smith moved to Chicago from Atlanta, he was hospitalized and later told he had lymphoma.

Aged 31, he died in Chicago on Wednesday.

UPDATE (9PM): The Atlanta Journal-Constitution had a story Saturday.