Nico Castel

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Nico Castel (born Naftali Chaim Castel Kalinhoff;

The Metropolitan Opera
, where he also served as staff diction coach for three decades.

Biography

Castel was born in

Sephardic rabbis" with roots in 15th century Castile.[1] He was raised in Venezuela by multilingual parents and a German nanny and attended a French school in Caracas.[2] After some vocal study in Caracas and then the University of Mainz in Germany, Castel moved to New York City at the age of 16 to pursue a singing career and to study romance languages at Temple University in Philadelphia. In the early 1950s, he served in the United States Army as a translator in Germany.[1][2]

In 1958, he became the first winner of the "Joy in Singing" award, which launched his career with a recital at

Wuthering Heights in Santa Fe.[1] In 1965, he first performed with the New York City Opera as Jacob Glock in The Flaming Angel and performing with that company in numerous roles thereafter.[3] With the Metropolitan Opera in 1970, he debuted as Don Basilio in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro. Over the next 27 years at the Met, he gave nearly 800 performances and later served for three decades, until his retirement in 2009, as its staff diction coach.[1]

Castel had over 200 operatic roles in his repertoire. His singing career took him around the world to work with such companies as

Westchester County, New York, and Progressive Synagogue in Brooklyn, New York. The New York Times commented: "Reviewers over the years praised Mr. Castel’s rich dramatic characterizations, his sensitive musicianship and, not surprisingly, his impeccable diction."[1]

A

Chicago Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, the Opera NUOVA Vocal Intensive Program in Edmonton, Alberta, and American Institute of Musical Studies, Graz, Austria. He and his third wife, Carol Cates Castel, a voice teacher and stage director, taught on the faculty of the Spoleto Vocal Arts Symposium in Spoleto, Italy.[1][3] They also founded and operated the New York Opera Studio, which trained young singers.[6] Castel annually presented the Nico Castel International Master Singer Competition, which accepted competitors up to age 40.[7]

Among Castel's recordings are Manon (with Beverly Sills, 1970) and The Tales of Hoffmann (with Sills and Norman Treigle, 1972), both conducted by Julius Rudel, and a live performance from the Metropolitan Opera of Ariadne auf Naxos (1988, with Jessye Norman, Tatiana Troyanos, and Kathleen Battle, conducted by James Levine; issued on DVD).

Castel's first wife was Carol Bayard and his second was Nancy Benfield. Both marriages ended in divorce. He died at the age of 83 in New York City, where he lived with his wife, Carol Cates Castel.[1] He had one child (with his second wife), Sasha Castel, who lives in Canberra, Australia.

Publications

  • Complete Opera Libretti Translation Series, Marcie Stapp, ed. (Leyerle Publications, Geneseo, New York)
  • The Nico Castel Ladino Song Book (Tara Publications, Cedarhust, New York)
  • A Singer's Manual of Spanish Lyric Diction (Excalibur Press, New York)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Fox, Margalit. "Nico Castel, Tenor and Diction Coach at the Met, Dies at 83", The New York Times, June 3, 2015
  2. ^ a b c d "Castel Opera Arts: Nico Castel". Castelopera.com. Archived from the original on October 24, 2016. Retrieved June 4, 2015.
  3. ^ a b c "Nico Castel, 83, Tenor, Internationally Celebrated Coach and Teacher, has Died", Opera News, June 2, 2015
  4. ^ "The Juilliard School". Juilliard.edu. Retrieved 2010-12-12.
  5. ^ "Master Classes: Mannes College The New School for Music". Newschool.edu. Archived from the original on 2010-08-02. Retrieved 2010-12-12.
  6. ^ "New York Opera Studio". New York Opera Studio. Retrieved 2010-12-12.
  7. ^ "New York Opera Studio". New York Opera Studio. 2010-11-30. Retrieved 2010-12-12.

Further reading

External links
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