This year, the annual gala celebrates the silver jubilee of the Richard Tucker Foundation, an organization that supports young American opera singers. Among the performers are several Richard Tucker Award winners, including the most recent, tenor Gregory Turay-a University of Kentucky alumnus-and sopranos Aprile Millo, Patricia Racette, and Ruth Ann Swenson; mezzo-sopranos Stephanie Blythe, Jennifer Larmore, and Dolora Zajick; and tenor Paul Groves. Other participating artists are Rodney Gilfry, Marcello Giordani, Kim Josephson, Samuel Ramey, and the New York Choral Society. Julius Rudel conducts members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. The master of ceremonies is Metropolitan Opera general manager Joseph Volpe, who relates operatic anecdotes about Tucker. The 90-minute program was taped February 4, 2001 at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall.