How Low Will He Go?
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Three centuries ago, there would have been another option: a warm bath, enough pressure on the jugular to put him out, a couple quick swipes of the knife, then a long apprenticeship with a singing master and the potential for a life of fame and fortune as a castrato. In these more enlightened times, Benkendorf will take what comes–perhaps a beautiful tenor, perhaps an unmanageable croak.
When four-year-old Sarah wanted to play the piano, Lee gave her a pint-size keyboard and found a young teacher willing to take on a preschooler; when she was six and started to sing, he had her busking in London’s Covent Garden. By the time she joined the cast at American Girl Place playing Swedish immigrant Kirsten, she was a seasoned soloist. Over the next few years Lee and Sarah developed and produced 36 episodes of Lights, Camera, Kids, a public-access program about children in showbiz. Before long, Adam was joining Sarah on concert dates and approaching strangers in restaurants, asking if they wanted to hear him sing in Italian. No one in the family had a strong interest in music before these kids came along, but the elder Benkendorf doesn’t venture lightly into anything: along with the gilded castrati-era clocks and crowds of competitive singing trophies, there are now three grand pianos in the house.
