- Born
- Died
- Birth nameNaftali Chaim Castel Kalinhoff
- Nico Castel was born on August 1, 1931 in Lisbon, Portugal. He was an actor, known for Amahl and the Night Visitors (1978), Live from Lincoln Center (1976) and Great Performances at the Met (1977). He was married to Carol Cates, Nancy Benfield and Carol Bayard. He died on May 31, 2015 in New York City, New York, USA.
- SpousesCarol Cates(1988 - May 31, 2015) (his death)Nancy Benfield(July 13, 1966 - 198?) (divorced, 1 child)Carol Bayard(195? - 196?) (divorced)
- He speaks fluent Portuguese, German, French, Spanish, Italian and English.
- American opera singer, born in Portugal and raised in Venezuela.
- As a young man in Venezuela, he worked for a whiskey importer.
- He studied voice in Caracas and at the University of Mainz in Germany. After moving to the US in 1948, he studied Romance languages at Temple University in Philadelphia. In the early 1950s, while serving in the US Army, he was a translator in Germany. In 1958, he won a singing contest; the prize was a recital at Town Hall in New York.
- He was an operatic tenor who appeared in nearly 800 performances with the Metropolitan Opera (NY). He had a parallel career as the company's diction coach. He also performed with the New York City Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the Santa Fe, San Francisco, and Seattle Operas.
- [on why he became an opera singer] One of my fellow workers said I could not work for the company and not try some whiskey. So he gave me a glass of Johnnie Walker Red. I downed it in one draught and became very drunk, and I began to sing. One fellow said, "Nico, you have a good voice, you ought to have it trained."
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