Pablo Torre Finds Out - The Fandom of the Opera: A Linebacker, a White Whale... and a Secret

Episode Date: April 14, 2026

We get it: As Timothée Chalamet said, "no one cares" about opera. But you should listen, instead, to former college linebacker Brandon Jovanovich — whose impossible rise from cater waiter to Captain Ahab proves that the artform that used to rule the world has way more in common with sports than you realize. (And that's even before you realize what he's been playing through, onstage.) Also: what a castrato is, Bugs Bunny, actual divas, Modell's and monster trucks.Further content:• "Inhabiting Ahab" (Patrick J. Sauer)• Vote for PTFO at The Webby Awards: Best Sports Podcast + Experimental & Innovation Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Pablo Torre finds out. I am Pablo Torre, and today we're going to find out what this sound is. Sure, win the wine in golden polo. But drinked not, just sing I you a song. Right after this ad. One of the basic things that I did not appreciate about opera until I was doing some amount of research into it

was that you guys don't get to use the thing that we're talking into right now. Right. And I felt like such a fucking idiot. We've talked to singers before, the microphone does a lot of the work, and then I'm realizing, oh, traditionally in opera, you guys don't use microphones. It's just projection, just all voice, man. And your body's kind of one big resonating space.

And, you know, if you have a larger head, it helps a little bit because that sound bounces around. Wait, is that right? Like the skull actually creates an amplifying? As far as I'm concerned. that's a fact. I'm now going to measure Pavarotti's skull shape now. I'm like, you...

Don't be real. I know there's some smaller. I know there's some people don't have the largest heads, but I know that when you start singing the bigger rep, everyone that I talk to seems to have a big old noggin. So, yeah. I love that the opera combine,

where they measure the prospects. They're like, yeah, this guy's skulls a little small. Gonna pass. I'll pass on that. But just even upkeep of your voice? I was joking to you in the kitchen, but like that is the moneymaker. I mean, it's a whole body thing because singing starts with the breath.

So you need to have really fantastic breath support. If you have really large lungs, that helps, you know, that helps tremendously. I don't. It's the craziest thing. You have mediocre lungs? Yeah, like I have, yeah, exactly. It's the craziest thing. But I know how to use the diaphragm and stuff.

So because you train so much that you, like walking, you don't think about walking how to step and put the foot down and stuff. But when you start singing, you have to think that way. And then you just use that more and more and more. And then all of a sudden you're singing and you don't have to think about the technique anymore. I want to get eventually to your actual past life as a football player. Okay.

I do. I don't just want to metaphorically talk about football. I want to talk about that in real terms. But your Scouting Report as an opera singer. Yeah. What is it, Franen Giovanovitch? And thank you for being here, by the way. Oh, please, please, please.

My pleasure. What position do you play? I'm a tenor. Yeah, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's all these subcategories. So there's a soprano, metzo-soprano, there's something called a countertenor. There's a tenor, baritone bass. And there's other, there's a bunch of different little categories than that. But I do a lot of analogies with bikes or, or, or, or automobile.

So with somebody's maybe a speed bike, somebody's maybe more of a Harley, somebody's maybe more of a race car, somebody's made a monster truck, a semi-truck. I'm more of probably the semi-truck or monster truck variety. I've got to do these long haul operas that last. The longest one, I think, with intermissions is about six hours. And there's a couple, you know, two breaks in there, but it's just, you know, it's a huge orchestra pumping out this sound, and you kind of have to learn to ride right over that.

The physical upkeep. Yeah. The power that the monster truck needs to generate. Oh, sure, yeah. Could you help convey to our audience what that. might sound like, some tastes of that? Okay, okay. So, you know, as a tenor, I'm kind of known as a dramatic, heroic tenor is what I'm kind of called, just the repertoire that I sing.

I should say that we have never had opera performed in our studio before. Okay, okay. So you're breaking new ground and possibly glass. I don't know how this is going to go. That's right. That's right. I don't know if I should move back or... You're looking at the wrong guy to give you advice on how to position this device that you'd normally never get to take advantage.

Yeah, I wish. Oh my gosh, this would be amazing. This would be a game changer. So I just did this thing recently out in San Francisco. It's called Parsifal. It's a Wagner opera. I've been singing for three days straight. But let me give you a little taste.

So I go, I sing. The wound, the wound, she brunt in my heart. Oh, clag, clag, A, fust-bore-clog, On the deepest behirten, Shreight she me off. Oh, oh, hellender, And so that's kind of the start of what I...

I mean, I forgot the bouquet to throw at you. That's... I apologize, but... Damn. I mean, look, dramatic, heroic tenor is what you had said. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I feel like, okay, we believe you. We don't need to check ID.

We believe you. I should admit that my opera education... primarily comes from like movies and also Bugs Bunny. Exactly. That was mine when I was growing up. Is that right? Yeah, I knew nothing about opera. Nothing.

Last thing in the world I thought I'd be doing is this. I vividly just remember the Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd. Yeah. What's Opera Doc? Yeah. That's right. That's right. Killed a Wabbitt.

Killed a Wabit. Killed a Wabit. Killed a Wabit. And then at the end, as he's being carried by Elmer Fud up to the select. celestial forever, Bugs kind of turns at the camera and says, Well, what did you expect in an opera? A happy ending?

That's it. That's it. Yeah. So at this point in the episode, you may understandably be wondering, why in the fuck we are doing an episode that seems to be about opera, which is an understandable sentiment. It's no less than Timothy Shalameh told Matthew McConaughey before the Academy Awards earlier this year. I don't want to be working in ballet or opera or, or things where it's like, hey, keep this thing alive,

even though no one cares about this anymore. All respect to the ballet and opera people out there. But I did not book Brandon Giovanovitch our guest today, simply to get you to care about opera, even though sports and pop culture have stolen from the opera house for a very long time, as you will see. I booked Brandon because he happens to be a former college linebacker whose own dramatic arc is as remarkable as any I have covered,

starting back when Brandon moved to Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, in the mid-90s. I was a caterer waiter for about 10 years, and I've worked some fantastic parties. I learned so much about New York society. Oh, you're getting a crash course in the highest rungs of New York hierarchy. It's nuts, and I'm from Billings, Montana, so I knew nothing about any of this. And one of Brandon's very first gigs just happened to be at the largest and busiest opera house in the entire world, the Metropolitan Opera House, right here in New York City,

where he found himself serving at several opening night gala. And I remember the first time I had this big platter of, it was a salmon, and I had to serve it at this really high end. It was $10,000 a table. And I walked out there as in my, I was in my tuxedo, and I was one of the farthest tables away. And I walked out there, and I went to the first person, and they were talking, and I leaned down and said,

excuse me. And as I leaned down to say, excuse me, the tray just tipped a little bit, and all the juice went right down this guy's back. He went jumping up and, oh, my God. And if Brandon were merely the only person in the history of the Metropolitan Opera House to go from serving at an opening night to starring in one, that alone would be heroic enough, right there. But that is not even the story we're here to tell.

Because when this married father of three debuted last year at the Met, As Captain Ahab in Moby Dick, battling a form of marine life, even more haunting than $10,000 salmon, Randon Javanovich was also hiding a profound personal secret. A secret I am hoping he will ultimately discuss with us here today. Moby Dick, speaking of happy endings, by the way. I guess for those who don't remember or know the character of Ahab, Yeah. Can you explain him to our audience?

Yeah, Ahab is this captain aboard the Piquad, and he was injured by this whale, and it was a white whale, and he has this maniacal need to hunt that whale down and to kill it. And it doesn't work out for him. Does not get the opportunity for a two-camera Bugs Bunny-style wink and not. That's right. Spoiler alert, being consumed by obsession and ambition does not work out. Yeah, go figure.

For old Captain Ahab. Yeah, no, no, by no means. When you were playing Ahab, were you a method Ahab? Oh my gosh. I mean, I think we all have so many variations of a white whale. I've got... Is it football? What part of you are haunted by the fact that you never made it?

Oh, gosh. You know, back in the day, oh, that was a big... That was a big deal. You know, I mean, don't get me wrong. I was never. It was all projection. I wanted to be something. There was no way I was going to make it.

But I really wanted to. And happiness, financial security, you know, health, happy kids, you know, it's funny. I've got all these things that at one point or another I've been chasing. When I was hearing you describe the plot of Moby Dick, I was like, oh, so there's this guy who's obsessed with this quest and he will do anything to get it. And in the meantime, all the people who work for him are kind of wondering, is this guy insane? Oh, yeah. And I'm like, I feel like the people behind the glass working on my show often think that of me. Like, hey, we're going to get the opera guy in today.

Is that a good business idea? I'll be real honest. I was surprised as anyone. And I'm going, what the hell are you talking to me for? You know, but okay. Hey, I'll do it. You were a scouted report as a football player? Yeah.

You gave me one as the heroic dramatic tenor. What were you like as a linebacker, Brandon? Okay, so I'm from Billings, Montana. And this was back in the 80s I was playing. I went to a little Catholic high school out there called Central. Central High School. And my dad, he was a big guy. He was about six, four, six, five.

He's probably weighed 300 pounds. Big skull, I imagine. Oh, he had a big old head. He had a big head. And I think they looked at him and they said, oh, well, this guy's going to be, this guy's going to be something. And I got up to, you know, in high school and my one year I played in college, I was, I got up to about a 190.

That's all I could, I capped out at that. And, you know, how was I? I was okay. I wouldn't say any, I wouldn't say great. I was good enough to get a scholarship to a minor, a minor college, NAA college, a University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota. That's right. Yeah.

Their second, they only had, their program was up for two years and I got a scholarship and out-of-state scholarship to go there. So I just played there for one year, and it was, it was 80 below for three or four days with wind chill. It was 80 below with windmill. Yeah, yeah, 80 below for this one weekend. And I'm from Montana, and it gets down cold. You know, it's 40 below there. I can remember vividly, 20 below, 10 below.

I mean, I'm used to cold weather, but that 80 below. And on the inside of our dorm, there was probably an inch and a half, two inches of ice on the bottom as all the moisture goes down the glass. But I said, after that weekend, I said, man, I'm getting out of here. So I ended up school down in Arizona. Yeah. You wind up at Northern Arizona University. I contacted NAU and I said, when I was still up at University Mayor, and I said, hey, I'd like to come down and play football for you guys. And they said, well, we don't know you.

You know, you need to try out and all that stuff. I said, okay. They said, you know, you could try out whenever you get down here and we could put you on maybe the next season, whatever. So I went down, but I couldn't afford to go to school down there. Like, you know, like with the whole tuition and such and the way my family finances and such. So I needed a scholarship. So I had always sung in choirs. You know, my mom used to roll these chords on the piano and sing a lot of Christmas songs all year round.

And I would sit down and sing with her. So I thought, okay, let me send in a tape to the music department. And they gave me a choir scholarship. So I got down there and I thought, okay. I'm on this choir scholarship. I sing a choir in the afternoon. I'll go play football, you know, after that. And they said, no, no, no.

You're here. You've got to start doing all the musicals, the operas. You've got to earn this scholarship. Yeah, you've got a roster spot. You've got to justify. That's exactly right. Yeah. I mean, their scouts, their reputations are on the line.

They signed this kid, so you're not seen off of a VHS tape, I'm assuming, based on the chronology of our civilization. Yeah, yeah, you got to prove it. I've got to prove it. Yeah. So I had to be there. So I had to be there. and just go all in on the singing.

And when do you realize this is something that I might be doing for potentially the rest of my life? It wasn't until I came out to New York, and people kept saying your voice is so big, and you should really try opera. Because you were trying to do at first what in New York? I was on this, like I did a little stint on guiding light, like just this little walk-on, you know, little tiny thing.

I did these little student films. I did little modeling for... Please tell me. me it's some sort of product that is deeply embarrassing. Oh, it was a football. I was, I was Models. Is that? Yeah, yeah, the sporting goods store.

Yeah, the sporting good store. Yeah. What year was this, roughly? This must have been maybe 95-96. Okay, so 95-96, I'm 11 years old. It's entirely possible that I buy a football at Models here in New York City because a Brandon trying to be his best quarterback that he never was. Exactly, exactly, you know, that's it.

So I started getting into a little bit. Somebody said, go. and try this opera apprenticeship out, which I went down to Santa Fe and did that. And people like my voice, and I started getting more and more work from that, and that slowly started taking off from there. At what point do you realize

that the culture shock of opera is something that you need to acclimate to? It still is. I mean, you're from... I'm a New York elitist, as you now know. Montana's not a hotbed of opera. No, by no means. And I think of, like, the fanciest,

most elite circles. in New York as well as Europe. It's got a bad rap, I would say, that it's elitist. It really isn't, but it's this idea that it is. It used to be for the, well, it used to be for the kings and queens, but there were, you know, you'd have commoners and such that could go and watch this also. Oh, so I should say that in my adulthood,

I have gone to Metropolitan Opera, and I have been very concerned upon arrival that I have been severely underdressed. Okay. And then only to realize, oh, wait a minute, There are some people who are like wearing business casual, not everybody's wearing a tuxedo. Oh, exactly. Yeah.

But on stage, I mean, truly, I think of Poverati. Yeah, exactly. Oh, boy, that's who I grew up with, too. See, in here. This is a white handkerchief. A white handkerchief. This is just where I turned it into first take, but for opera. Is he the goat?

Who's the greatest of all time to you? You know, some people will say that he is. For me, there's a guy named Franco Correlli, and he had this voice. He was just an animal. And he's this Italian spinto tenor, they called him. And he could sing these notes like you wouldn't believe a once in a lifetime sort of a tenor. But there's so many, there's another guy named James King. And he's more of a heroic tenor like I am.

But he's a goat in my field. You know, he just is a phenomenal voice. It occurs to me also, as I'm reflecting on the language we use in sports to describe star athletes. I mean, one word is literally, it turns out, from opera, which is the word diva. Oh, yeah. Oh, exactly. Oh, sure. Speaking of your female counterparts here, but like we got that wide receiver such a diva. Right, yeah. It originates, apparently, from the Italian for goddess.

And it was used in 19th century opera. This is from your culture, your ancient culture. That's it. But there's so, it's funny, there's so many references. There's so much opera that is in our society that we don't even bat an eye at, we don't know. The wedding, the wedding song, here comes the brine, all dressed for my... That's from Lonegren. That's from a Wagner opera.

Yeah. We're all doing Wagner at our weddings. That's right. Yeah, you had no idea. And I didn't know it until about, heck, I don't even know, 2010. Somebody said, you know, that's from the show you're going to be singing in a couple of years. I said, oh, geez, you're kidding me. And, yeah, there's just a ton of things.

You know, Carmen has so many songs that you just hear riddled throughout commercials and just in life. Toreador on God Academy Award winner Tatum O'Neill is his secret weapon Together they turned the bad news bears into a team of superstars you will never forget

The bad news bears The incredible story of how a disaster combined with a catastrophe and somehow became the greatest champs who ever play ball Yeah it's it's

It's crazy, all the little pieces. And when you're in Europe, it's even more so. It's part of their language. You go into a grocery store and you hear opera in the background. But there's definitely a lot of opera here in the States that you just don't even realize. So I did promise you a secret, and we are going to get to that, the thing that Brandon Giovanovitch was carrying onto the Metropolitan Opera House stage as Captain Ahab in just a bit here.

But in order to truly understand the devotion and the intensity that this particular art form is steeped in. I did want to try and explain something else first. The concept of the castorato. Oh, yeah. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Yeah. You have these young boy singers, and they sing and they have this high soprano sound, and it's really crystalline, and they still sing like this in London. And in a lot of European countries, maybe over here, too.

I'm sure there's one or two beautiful voices. And back in the day, you had a good voice and you needed a career. They would say, we're keeping that voice years before testosterone kicks in. We're going to go ahead and neuter you. And they would snip the testes off of these kids. And their voices are going to be like this their whole life. And this was in part because in various parts of Europe under the control of the Catholic Church, such as Rome, women were banned from the stage altogether until about the 1800s.

And so these men, with the pre-bubescent vocal structures and the adult lung power despite that, came to be some of the richest and most famous celebrities in the whole world. The Timothy Shalames of their time. In fact, composers like Handel and Vivaldi and Mozart, if you've heard of him, they wrote operas specifically for Castrato Sopranos. and they were just celebrated because they gave up their manhood for this art form. I mean, was it against their will?

I mean, you know, maybe they wanted to at the time. I don't know how many 10 or... I'm not here to turn a political... Right. To make a political turn. Exactly, yeah. In terms of we need to prosecute those I... But the value...

Yeah. Ascribe to people who could hit those notes. Oh, yeah. I mean, even into the turn of the 20th century, the man regarded as the world's first ever international recording star was an opera singer named Enrico Caruso, who was not a castrato, we should definitely point out here, but he was paid extraordinarily handsomely to use his physical gifts. So Enrico Caruso, he came over and he had these huge, huge, you know, probably the equivalent

of singing for a million dollars a night, you know. And that was, he was one of the most famous, but there was plenty of people that had the same sort of fanaticism behind them and people wanting their autograph and whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And this was before we had a lot of sports in the United States. And this was the entertainment for a vast majority of the country. Live arena-filling entertainment.

Exactly, you know, and they're up there doing their own sorts. of sports like, you know, being able to pump out this sound for hours and a time. The first time that the New York Times writes about you, it's 1996. You're doing the gondoliers, I believe. Oh, my gosh, yeah. Okay. And here's the quote, but the true air turned out to be the Duke's strapping attendant, strapping attendant to your physical description just now,

winningly played by the bright-voiced tenor, Brandon Giovanovich, whose stiff demeanor was a refreshing contrast, some of the mugging going on around him. And again, you've now typecast yourself as the big American oaf. But you're on these stages and you're like infiltrating this company, this culture, and the climb. That was 96, 30 years ago. Jeez Louise. How do you describe the climb?

My career has had a very slow and steady ascension. It's been slow, though. A lot of these kids nowadays, they're taking off a lot faster. Mine was small companies, small roles. small places, small houses, and I just kind of kept building block by block until I make it to it, the Metropolitan Opera or Paris, Vienna, you know, La Scala.

And yeah, it's a really wild, I never in a million years thought I was going to get there or that I deserved to be there, but that's the way it worked out for me. What was the sort of, I can't believe this is happening to me moment? On player podcast in sports,

what was your welcome to the league moment? Brandon, Giovannovich, what was your welcome to opera moment? So I was in Le Contoffman, the Tales of Hoffman, and I had sung it in this little theater in Nantes, France. And then they needed a cover. Somebody was going to get one performance at La Scala in Milan. This was in 2004. So I went audition for him, and they gave me the role.

I went there, was a rehearsing, horrible rehearsal experience. I mean, it was really bad. The director was just, sheer hell and the other tenor, the main tenor, he was on tour. So I was rehearsing with both people. And then it came to, the tenor arrived just before we opened. And he said, I cannot sing today. My voice is very tired.

So the conductor at the time, his name is Gary Bertini. He said, Brana, come down here. You come down here and sing. So I had to stand and really not. You don't do this. You sing with the other tenor right there. So I sang the whole first prologue and the first act. And the tenor walked down, this other guy, and he came in it.

And he goes, a little brand, and I don't know you. I'd like to meet you. And he goes, my name is Oso. And so I introduced himself. He goes, I want to let you know. There's 95% chance I know sing opening night. I said, oh, okay, thanks for letting me know. He goes, actually, it's 100%.

I'm going to quit now. And so he went and quit. And so I thought, oh, geez, Louise. So I ended up opening this huge production at La Scala. and I was pinching myself, you know. Was I ready for it? Not necessarily. But was I up there doing it?

You bet I was. Much like Tom Brady filling in for Drew Bledsoe. That's right. On short notice, so too did you take the stage in front of the world. Yeah. What are nerves like in opera? It's very nerve-wracking.

You know, you get... Still, you still feel it. Yeah, oh yeah. Before I walk out on stage, I'm very nervous. As soon as I get out there, it's like being at home. It's, I feel so comfortable. a stage and and I feel very secure and I like to I like to pretend and and I you don't see when you're on stage you don't see the audience it's just bright lights in your eyes and I become a character

I'm not Brandon so it's much easier once you're on there but but beforehand oh it's it's very nerve-wracking and you have one take that's what I was telling my mom back when she was live I was saying you know yeah you know this is a one-shot deal you go out there you mess up you keep going they can't stop and let's rewind take that again no you do it and and and so there's a lot of nerves involved because, you know, nobody's perfect. You're going to mess up something, whether it's a word, whether it's a note, whatever, and you can keep going. Again, in my review of opera criticism, it does not seem like these people are particularly generous.

No, by no means. Oh, gosh. I'm trying to imagine, like, what it's like, again, the sports parallels, like these columnists really just like fucking on my ass. Oh, please. I have this one guy, a Spanish reviewer, and he was in your, And I tell you, I could have sung, I could have opened up and, like, you know, the angels of heaven could have come out of my mouth. And it's horrible, you know, what a sound. Oh, it's disgusting. He doesn't know what he's doing.

And he hates me. To this day, I mean, it's probably reviewed me over 20 times. I've never gotten a good review from this guy ever. And there's a point where you have to stop reading him. You know what I'm saying? You literally could have castrated yourself and would not have done the job. That's right. One of the things that, and you were just referencing this,

how you got this experience in Europe, where suddenly you were the understudy having to fill in. Yeah, yeah. There were a number of performances of you doing Moby Dick at the Met Opera in New York City where your understudy turned out to be needed. Yeah, a bunch. A bunch, three in a row.

And so for those who don't know why that is, which is, I think everybody listening to this. Yeah. Why? I was receiving chemotherapy. And so I was supposed to have six rounds of chemo. They added three rounds for me. And so on the seventh round, it was going to be after opening night. And it was when I flew back home, got this chemo. And then I came back and I think I was done. The show was on a Sunday, I believe. I flew out Monday morning, got this chemo, flew back on Tuesday. And then I think we had a show on Thursday or Friday, I forget. And my, friend from college was coming in. So I wanted to be sure to sing for him. He and his daughter, he had just lost his wife recently. So I wanted to make, it was a big thing for him. So I was feeling a little funky because it does something to your cords. It kind of dries you out. So I, so my chords weren't working quite right, but I powered through it. And I got up the next day,

and they were trashed. Your vocal cords. Yeah, my vocal cords. They were just fried. So I thought, okay, I'll take this next one. I'll let Alex see, was my cover at the time, and I was going to let him take this performance. And so he sang it, and then I was hoping I was going to be ready for the next one. No way. So he sang the next one. Then I was hoping I was going to be good enough for the next one.

No, no way. So then I was able to do the last ones. But, yeah, it was a trying experience. Yeah. I have a habit of burying leads on this show. But this one, I do, I did want to withhold just because your story, everything we've described took place in this context

which again the audience the reviewers certainly but the audience they didn't know no no no one knew no one knew what was going on they didn't know that you were dealing with stage four

prostate cancer yeah no one knew it at the time yeah and for the most part no one knows now well maybe the few listening to this now will but the people who have made it this deep in are realizing they're realizing

one of the reasons why I was like immediately yes I want to understand how the fuck this guy did this. Yeah, yeah. It was something. I don't understand how you showed up to play that game. Let's go back a few years.

Yeah, please. It turns out that the story of how Brandon Giovanovich became the first person to take the stage of the Metropolitan Opera while secretly fighting Stage 4 prostate cancer starts in 2015. In 2015, I was singing, oh gosh, it was de Meister Singer. This is another Wagner opera. This was the long. longest one I'd probably say that I'd sung. And this was out in San Francisco. And I ate something bad and I got really sick. And it just kind of, no big deal. We were now working with the orchestra and stuff. And so I was on stage and my knee started hurting. Thought that was odd, maybe I moved wrong. Then my ankle started hurting. Then they both started swelling. This went over a little short period of time. And I kept going to the doctor over and over again. And he said, finally, he said, you know, when you get home, go see a rheumatologist.

And a rheumatologist, by the way, is a doctor who specializes in autoimmune diseases and muscles and joints and connective tissues. Some of the more confusing mysteries of the human body. So I went to a rheumatologist and they said you have something called ankylosing spondylitis. It's a disease that you get swelling, a lot of swelling and your joints kind of start, in your back especially starts fusing. And he said, you know, you can get on something and it took about three months, but it was this. this biological drug called Humira. Wonderful drug, I tell you, it was like, the first time I took it, it felt like glass was breaking in my body.

Which was a positive development at that point, because Brandy could just loosen up those swollen joints and finally start moving his body again. And this was a game changer, but what it does, it suppresses the immune system. And then, years later, something else felt like it was breaking. I was singing in Europe. sang a production in Barcelona and I had this harness on me. They had to, it looked like a big

washing machine. I was strapped onto this thing and they lifted me up high in the air when I was dead. It was about 20 feet, 25 feet in the air and hanging upside down by the strap. And the first time they put it on, it felt like a broke a rib. I felt some snap. And they did an x-ray. And he said, well, I don't think it's broken. He goes, but it could be now. And I was supposed to go to London and sing something. And I just couldn't get my breath to work. This is an early 20, 24, I just couldn't get my breathing right. My breathing had been off. I just, you can tell it when you used all the time. And it was just a little bit off. And so I had to withdraw from this production. Didn't know what was going on. Then I went to Munich and back to back. And I did

another show that's a Russian opera called Peak Dom. And I did one performance and then I got sick with COVID. So I went home. And so this is where I just need to say that I talked to one of Brandon's high school classmates, the writer Patrick Sauer, who's delightful profile of Brandon in Montana Quarterly is how I first learned about this story in the first place, and what Patrick also made clear, if it is not clear by now, on account of Brandon's continued global itinerary, despite the fact that his lungs had apparently stopped functioning normally, is that the dude never wanted to sit out games, like ever.

But this time... Went home, we're there for about a week, and I woke up one night just this killer pain in my stomach, and I told my wife, said I'm going to drive myself to the hospital. I think I've got, I think my appendix burst. It's freaking killing me. They did some cat scans and such, and the doctor comes in, I was laying in this bed, and he said, I don't want to give you bad news, but I think you've got cancer.

But after the doctors ran a battery of tests plus blood work over the next couple days, they could not immediately find the cancer. One theory was that Brandon was suddenly having an intense allergic reaction to his own Humera medication, which we mentioned before. And so Brandon Jovanovich simply decided to keep pushing through. So I went home and actually, I flew out here and I took photos for this big photo shoot for the Met Opera, the Ahab thing. And got done with that. I got to say at this point in the story, I know you said you're not a method Ahab. That's it. But allow me to observe that we were talking about obsession and ambition and the self-destruction.

Oh, yeah. And you're pushing through, literally to play the character who pushes through at all costs. That's it. Yeah. Yeah. It was crazy. I went over to Zurich. I was supposed to do a show over there.

And some blood work came back. And it said my PSA, which is the prostate antigen that they measure in your blood, it's supposed to be between zero and four. and that's like the normal range. Mine came back at, I think at the time, it was 172. So I went to a doctor in Zurich. They tested it again. Sure enough, it was then, by then it was like 196 or something like that.

And long story short, it ended up coming home. It was 212 at that point. And they started me on chemo right away. And it was, it spread throughout my body. My prostate kind of burst open. It was pushing up against all of my, guts and satcho is really horrible. But in all sincerity, I'm now reading this quote from the editor-in-chief of Opera Wire, David Salazar, quote, Brandon Javanovitch is a force of nature.

I loved his Ahab, a man you aren't exactly supposed to love. Oh, right. And that, I think, is a fantastic scouting report on you. Yeah. He made me love Ahab. That's right. And how are you doing now? Yeah, you know, I'm doing pretty good. I've got a, um, so I did these nine. rounds of chemo. There's still, I've got these things, it's called bone mats. It's these, it's metastasized and it's sitting on some bones. So to kill it faster, these, so that these die a little bit faster. I'm taking something. It's this newer drug. It's called Pluvitko. And you get six rounds of high intensity radiation that is specifically attracted to the prostate cancer itself. So they douse you with this thing. And for six weeks, they let it float around

in your body and just attacking the prostate cancer, killing it more. And then I go back and get another one. Right now I'm in three rounds. I've got three more to go. Wow. And hopefully that's going to clean up a lot of this stuff. Just let the body heal itself and do the thing. So, yeah, I'm doing all right.

It's incredible, man. I mean, look, I believe you are the first cater waiter to go from caterwaiting to the stage at the Met Opera. But certainly this added level of like, Who has ever done anything quite like your life? That's it. And who has better resembled in a quite real way, this theme of opera, which is profound strength,

but also like legitimate vulnerability? I'm sure there's other people. I'm not trying to say that I am the, you know, but... You're the only one that's been in this podcast studio, and for that reason, you're going to receive these flowers. My gosh, that's it. You're going to receive these flowers, damn it. That's it.

As the last parting note, is there a... anything perhaps that feels like it channels something like joy that you might give us? What should we go out on? You know what? There's the thing that I'm singing right now up in Boston. It's really sad, actually. This guy named Mahler, his wife died, his mom died, and his kid died all in one year. And he wrote this really heartfelt song about suffering and such.

But in the end, it says, you know, but the earth is always going to have spring. And spring was going to come again and again and again. So, you know, life lives on. But the mezzo gets to sing that. I'm more the composer. And I say, if things get crappy, have another drink. Pretty much. And so that's what I'm singing.

So I'll give you a little bit of what I, just I'll give you a start of one of these. Please. Let me think here. Yeah, okay. So this is the little thing from that. Brandon Javon The wine In gold

Pogale But drink No The music I sing I'm A song The song

From combe So Offluckin In the Sele Rekel he Brandon Giovanovich

The official You're now being conferred This title The official dramatic heroic tenor of Pablo Torre finds out. It's been a pleasure. I don't know, man.

Maybe operas do have happy endings. Yeah, my gosh, I'm going to take it. I think that sounds good. There's some that do. There are some that have happy endings. So, you know, I'll take it. I like that ending. This has been Pablo Torre finds out.

A Metal Arc Media production. And I'll talk to you next time.