Colin lee tenor biography of michaels

Mansel Stimpson talks to the South African tenor who is making his second Covent Garden appearance within two months…. When Colin Lee left his place of birth, Cape Town, and headed for England he was twenty-three years old and not without musical experience.

Born in South Africa, Colin Lee moved to London in where he has continued his studies with the tenor Jeffrey Talbot.

Nevertheless when he departed from South Africa it was without any intention of developing a singing career for he had already qualified as a chartered accountant and pursued this profession on arrival in the UK. However, Colin was well aware that singing meant a lot to him — as a member of school choirs and taking lessons in Cape Town simply for the pleasure of it.

How they did what they did absolutely entranced me. My teacher in South Africa put me on the right path but, although at that stage the voice was musical and it was sweet, it was no good for opera. I lacked entirely that Italianate style which so intrigued me. At times it was a frustrating process — for all of seven years I would have two hour-long sessions each week with him and not only did I never sing in public but for fifty minutes each time we would just do vocal exercises.

Then, just to make me feel better about myself and in acknowledgment of what it was all about, he would let me sing an aria for the last ten minutes. Of course, things like that never do quite balance, but at the end of I was offered a small contract to sing to passengers taking a millennium cruise on the QE2 and on a couple of other ships. So I made the decision taking the view that if it were only going to last three months it would certainly be a fantastic three months aboard those ships going around the world.

Colin lee tenor biography of michael jackson.

So I resigned from my job at the close of and started out in the big unknown. In what he has to say he is both direct and open. However, although he had been asked to sing Count Almaviva at two performances, Colin himself was ultimately not so lucky. To sing the role of Rosina from a wheelchair is extraordinary in every way: to sing it standing upright is difficult enough, but to be bent over in a chair and co-ordinating the wheels!