DIY History | Transcribe | Campus Culture | Cecile Cooper newspaper clippings, 1964-1998 | 1978-11-12 Article: ""My Nephew, The Opera Star"" Page 1

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Cecile Cooper newspaper clippings, 1964-1998

1978-11-12 Article: ""My Nephew, The Opera Star"" Page 1

"My Nephew, The Opera Star" 
Sunday, Nov. 12, 1978 
Quad-City Times 
By Shirley Davis 
Women's Editor 

  Say "hello" to Simon Estes, and the booming bass-baritone voice that answers leaves no doubt you're talking to an opera star -- a big opera star.
  He moves with the confident stride of a man assured of his success, and, as a matter of fact, the future couldn't look much brighter for the tall, good-looking, Iowa-born Estes. His aunt, Cecile Cooper of Davenport, can now refer to him as "my nephew, the Metropolitan Opera Star".
  Estes has appeared in lead roles with opera houses through-out the world, and he has just signed a contract with the "big one" in this country -- the Met in New York City. He'll open in "Eugene Onegin" by Tchaikovsky, singing the role of Gremin in Russian for his first performance there in Novemeber 1979.
  At 40, Estes is just beginning. His teacher estimates he'll be able to sing professionally perhaps until 70. "i have good, strong vocal cords, and my doctor says I should sing for the next 30 or 40 years," Estes says.
  He lives nine months a year in Europe (with an apartment in Zurich, Switzerland) and spends three months a year in the United States, owning an apartment in New York City. His third residence is in Des Moines, with his mother Mrs.Ruth Estes. His father is no longer living.
  WHEN ESTES was growing up in centerville, Iowa, he never once dreamed of becoming a world-famous opera star. "My father was a coal miner, and I don't think he ever made more than $40 a week in his life -- and that was to support a family of six," Estes says.
 "In those days, there were menial jobs for Negroes. It was difficult to find a good job and most resorted to shoe shining or being janitors, porters or miners."
Today, Estes is singing roles never sung before by a black man. When he sings "Macbeth," as he will - in a new production they're doing for Hamburg, Germany, he'll sing the title role.
He's sung more than 80 different roles and is such a popular performer he has booking into 1983. In the next two years, he'll sing in the great opera houses of Europe-- in Berlin, Vienna, Zurich, Milan, Munich, Florence and Paris, all opera houses in which he's appeared before.
Soon, he'll do a new production of Rossini's "Moses" at LaScala in Milan.
Within a three-week period, Estes will sing with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic. He recently sang four performances of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the Los Angeles Philharmonic's new conductor, Carlo Maria Giulini, and the last performance was seen

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"My Nephew, The Opera Star" Sunday, Nov. 12, 1978 Quad-City Times By Shirley Davis Women's Editor Say "hello" to Simon Estes, and the booming bass-baritone voice that answers leaves no doubt you're talking to an opera star -- a big opera star. He moves with the confident stride of a man assured of his success, and, as a matter of fact, the future couldn't look much brighter for the tall, good-looking, Iowa-born Estes. His aunt, Cecile Cooper of Davenport, can now refer to him as "my nephew, the Metropolitan Opera Star". Estes has appeared in lead roles with opera houses through-out the world, and he has just signed a contract with the "big one" in this country -- the Met in New York City. He'll open in "Eugene Onegin" by Tchaikovsky, singing the role of Gremin in Russian for his first performance there in Novemeber 1979. At 40, Estes is just beginning. His teacher estimates he'll be able to sing professionally perhaps until 70. "i have good, strong vocal cords, and my doctor says I should sing for the next 30 or 40 years," Estes says. He lives nine months a year in Europe (with an apartment in Zurich, Switzerland) and spends three months a year in the United States, owning an apartment in New York City. His third residence is in Des Moines, with his mother Mrs.Ruth Estes. His father is no longer living. WHEN ESTES was growing up in centerville, Iowa, he never once dreamed of becoming a world-famous opera star. "My father was a coal miner, and I don't think he ever made more than $40 a week in his life -- and that was to support a family of six," Estes says. "In those days, there were menial jobs for Negroes. It was difficult to find a good job and most resorted to shoe shining or being janitors, porters or miners." Today, Estes is singing roles never sung before by a black man. When he sings "Macbeth," as he will - in a new production they're doing for Hamburg, Germany, he'll sing the title role. He's sung more than 80 different roles and is such a popular performer he has booking into 1983. In the next two years, he'll sing in the great opera houses of Europe-- in Berlin, Vienna, Zurich, Milan, Munich, Florence and Paris, all opera houses in which he's appeared before. Soon, he'll do a new production of Rossini's "Moses" at LaScala in Milan. Within a three-week period, Estes will sing with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic. He recently sang four performances of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the Los Angeles Philharmonic's new conductor, Carlo Maria Giulini, and the last performance was seen