Cole, Vinson
Cole, Vinson
Cole, Vinson, black American tenor; b. Kansas City, Mo., Nov. 20, 1950. He studied at the Curtis Inst. of Music in Philadelphia, where he sang Werther while still a student in 1975; then was an apprentice at the Santa Fe Opera, and was chosen to create the role of Innis Brown in Ulysses Kay’s Jubilee in Jackson, Miss., in 1976; that same year he made his European debut as Belmonte with the Welsh National Opera in Cardiff. From 1976 to 1980 he appeared at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis. He sang Nicolai’s Fenton at the N.Y.C. Opera in 1981. In 1992 he was engaged as Donizetti’s Edgardo in Detroit. After singing Nadir in Les Pêcheurs de perles in Seattle in 1994, he portrayed Jason in Cherubini’s Medea in Athens in 1995. In 1996 he sang Renaud in Gluck’s Armide at Milan’s La Scala. He returned to Seattle as Werther in 1997, and then sang Idomeneo at the Lyric Opera in 1998. As a concert artist, he toured widely in the U.S. and abroad, appearing with major orchs. Among his admired operatic portrayals are Gluck’s Orfeo, Percy in Anna Bolena, Des Grieux in Manon, Lensky, Gounod’s Faust, and Bizet’s Nadir.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire