Vinson Cole Vinson Cole Vinson Cole (born November 21, 1950) is an American operatic tenor. A native of Kansas City, the tenor studied at the University of Missouri, Kansas City; the Philadelphia Musical Academy; and at the Curtis Institute of Music with Margaret Harshaw. He made his European debut in Angers, France in Handel's "Acis and Galatea" and followed that with the role of Belmonte in Mozart's "Abduction from the Seraglio" with the Welsh National Opera. In 1977, his youthful promise was recognized when he won the Metropolitan Opera Auditions, the WGN Competition, and was awarded both Rockefeller Foundation and National Opera
Willoughby Weiss di Lammermoor" (with Dorus Gras and Henry Whitworth), conducted by Hector Berlioz, in Louis Antoine Jullien's company: soon afterwards Reeves and Weiss sang together again in the premiere of Balfe's opera "Maid of Honour". In 1854 he set Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem ""The Village Blacksmith"" to music, from which he made a considerable fortune. In that year Weiss was in Jarrett's company at Drury Lane, with Reeves, Agnes Büry, Mme Rudersdorff, Louisa Pyne and others, in a season including "Lucia", "Fra Diavolo", "La sonnambula", "Il Seraglio" and "Masaniello". On New Year's Day 1856, with Reeves, Novello and Lewis Thomas, he