Is American tenor Vinson Cole cast in the unenviable position of playing an operatic wimp? The man who stars as the hapless Don Jose in Southern Opera's current production of Carmen smiles softly before coming out to robustly defend an army deserter, murderer, jealous lover and, possibly, obsessive delusionist. Aside from that, Cole's client is a nice man. But a wimp? "A wimp? No. Definitely not," submits the tenor who has sung the role more times than many opera-goers have eaten hot enchiladas. Cole, after all, has the facts at his fingertips – here's a singer who painstakingly researches each role before the performance. "Deep down, Don Jose is is a very soft-grained person. Devoutly Catholic. A Mediterranean man devoted to his mother. He's been sentenced to serve in a regiment made up of convicts, but that's not what he is. In that first duet, he emerges as a sentimental man but one prone to outbursts of rage and temper which come and go rapidly. That's what got him into trouble. When he falls for Carmen, this is an absolute love like none other. A grand passion which he doesn't feel for Micaela. "As Maria Callas once said, it's all in the score and the music. If you want, you can play him like a bull in the china shop, but I don't think that this works. Here's an entirely different personality to Carmen. It's a case where opposites attract."
Vinson Cole is a quiet man, a modest man and a thoughtful singer who considers each role and each question carefully. He's also one of the leading American tenors of his generation with a singing voice one critic has described as "golden ... vibrant, appealing, with an ability to summon his voice to lofty heights and to his deepest lower range with utter control and support". Born in Kansas City in 1950, Cole studied at the University of Missouri, The Philadelphia Musical Academy and the Curtis Institute of Music. He made his European debut in Angers in a French production of Handel's Acis and Galatea. In 1977, Cole won the Metropolitan Opera auditions. He went on to sing leading roles in many of the world's major opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera, Opera National de Paris and Paris Opera-Bastille, and Teatro alla Scala, while appearing regularly at the Salzburg Festival. In 1997, he returned to open the season at La Scala Milan as Renaud in Gluck's Armide with Riccardo Muti conducting. In 1999 Cole made his debut with the Royal Opera at Covent Garden when he sang the title role in Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito. In the 2001 season, he returned to New York to sing Alfredo in the Metropolitan Opera's production of La Traviata. Vinson Cole has become closely identified with the French operatic repertoire after singing in Manon at Paris's Opera Comique in 1984 and performances in a range of international productions including Lakme, Werther and, naturally, Carmen. He has sung with a formidable battery of conductors including Herbert von Karajan, Sir Georg Solti, Seiji Ozawa, Sir Simon Rattle and Riccardo Muti.
Today, Cole combines his singing career with teaching.
So much for the bare biographical details. Today, Carmen is the opera. Cole enthuses about the role of Don Jose – "great to sing, a part written for several voices". "The duets with Micaela in the first two acts are lyrical, flowing. Loving, simple music. The second act comes with a few outbursts, then the third where you can use the voice to great effect. The more I sing the role, the more I enjoy the last two acts when I can let things soar out."
This all began in a city deep in America's heartland, where Cole began his singing career as a member of the local church choir.
"I sang in the kids' choir. When I was nine, I was sent to a voice teacher who accepted me as a student. At 11, I sang in my first opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors. By 12, I had performed my first recital of lieder. I sang frequently with the Kansas City Opera Company before my voice broke and I became a tenor. Before he died, my voice teacher told my mother not to let me stop singing, and that's what happened – I continued to sing."
Another childhood memory is listening to a recording of Dame Joan Sutherland. The memory of that voice remained etched in Cole's mind.
"I've been fortunate in being able to divide my career between opera, orchestral work and recitals. I also consider myself fortunate in being able to break into opera during my second year at the Curtis Institute when I made my first appearance with the San Francisco Opera's production of Mascagni's L'Amico Fritz. The Santa Fe Opera then took an interest in my career and helped immensely."
Cole's major break came when, at 32, he was invited to sing for Herbert von Karajan, a conductor with a ferocious reputation as an autocrat. Cole discovered a different personality. "He was in New York on tour with the Berlin Philharmonic and was holding auditions for 34 American singers. I sang the Italian song from Der Rosenkavalier at the end of the day. Two days later I sang the same piece for him again, aware that Von Karajan had had a spat with the tenor who was supposed to sing the role in a new production and didn't have a tenor at that point. "`Don't move', Von Karajan told me after I finished. Then `Sing it again'. Then he asked me to sing an aria from La Boheme – and to hold the high C for as long as I could. I was then invited to understudy for the role. "Two weeks later, I was asked to record the Italian song in Vienna and play the role. I'd never sung the second part before, but managed the entire take in one sitting."
It was the beginning of a long working relationship with von Karajan, a man Cole still views as a great soundmaker who knew, and got, exactly what he wanted.
Of all the conductors he has worked with, von Karajan remains the most memorable. "My great fortune was to be able to work with him on a number of occasions. It was a fulfilling musical experience in which I learned immensely in a number of different ways. "Each conductor teaches you something different. It's been a real joy and musically fulfilling to stand there and make incredible music, emotionally and musically."
Cole initially approached teaching with reservations.
"I was living in Seattle when I was asked to do some teaching. It was rather shocking. I had no control over who came to study and kept asking myself why was I doing this to this young person. Then I encountered one or two young singers and recognised that there was something in their voice – a few notes perhaps but definitely something. "During the years that I've been teaching, I've come to love it and hate it. It's frustrating because you say the same thing again and again. But I remember how I used to return to my old teacher at the Curtis Institute to study long after I left the institute and was in between jobs. You never stop learning, even as a teacher. I was fortunate to have a teacher who was a link in a long singing lineage. Today I'm another link. "I tell my students that I have no ego. My ego is in my singing. As a teacher, my whole intention is to help them. If I feel, or they feel, I can't then they won't hurt my feelings. While I'm teaching, I enjoy it. There's a sense of deep fulfilment to both singing and teaching." Above all, listen to other singers, Cole tells his students. Listen to the voice and the musical lineage it represents. Listen and learn. "Why listen solely to today's singers? Listen to scratchy, noisy early recordings and discover and learn from those earlier singers. We're all stops on the way. When I teach at the Aspen Music School each summer I see young singers with the energy and desire and the drive to sing. That's something you can never instil in anyone. This is what they want.
" I'll go on singing for as long as they want me. There's always the point when everyone decides that they don't want to continue. There was a time when I was on the road for 10, 11 months each year. I never thought that I sacrificed anything for my singing career. I loved it. I still love it. People get up in the morning and drive to work. I get up and fly 3000 miles to sing."
Why do operas like Carmen have such an enduring place in the busy lives of the 21st century? "Opera was once the entertainment of the day. It's still the foundation of many forms of entertainment. Look at any MTV video and you'll see singing, acting, dancing. It's all there. Come to see an opera and you'll see and hear something unique. Each performance is different – and it's all done without microphones."
* Rinat Shaham, Vinson Cole, Joshua Bloom and Suzanne Prain star in Southern Opera's production of Carmen, directed by Elric Hooper with Christchurch Symphony, conducted by Brian Law. Isaac Theatre Royal, to October 16. Book at Ticketek.