Opera Singer Ryan Speedo Green Pulls From His Own Difficult Past To Channel Dramatic Roles

When Ryan Speedo Green was a boy in southeastern Virginia, he and his brother used to cower in their room when their parents fought viciously.

When he was in second grade, he was put in a special class for violent children.
When he was 12 — his father was long gone — Green threatened his mother and brother with a knife.

His mother had him put in juvenile detention. And there, he was often in solitary confinement.

Fast forward to this Saturday night. The 33-year-old Green will be on stage, singing bass-baritone at the Tanglewood Music Festival.

He joined All Things Considered to discuss his life — professional and personal. His story is laid bare in the book “Sing for Your Life," where he talks about how the blistering anger of his past is now a tool he uses in the present.