Lyric chorus member and naval reservist RONALD WATKINS gets ‘quick call-up.’ At his farewell matinee, he ponders his future.

By Emily Nunn
Tribune staff reporter
Published January 26, 2007

On a recent afternoon, Petty Officer 2nd Class Ronald Watkins was relaxing in a gray wig that makes him look much older than his 41 years, a fake mustache and dashing evening attire suited to a late-19th Century Viennese partygoer — which, even as a military man, is the kind of get-up he’s quite comfortable with.

Watkins, a baritone and a naval reservist, has been a regular chorus member with the Lyric Opera since 1992, and he had just come offstage after singing and waltzing in Act 2 of Strauss’ operetta "Die Fledermaus."

An opera singer … goes to war | Chicago Tribune.