Kim Begley
Born: 1952, Birkenhead
Nationality: British
Born in Birkenhead in 1952, the English tenor Kim Begley began his career as an actor before training as a singer at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the National Opera Studio; he made his Covent Garden debut in 1983 in Peter Maxwell Davies’s Taverner and has maintained a close relationship with the Royal Opera ever since, with roles there including The Drum Major (Wozzeck), Captain Vere Billy Budd, and Siegmund Die Walküre. He made his Bayreuth debut as Loge, and has recorded the role for Christoph von Dohnányi and Jaap van Zweden; his discography also includes Dr Caius on Sir Georg Solti’s recording of Falstaff, Herod in Salome from the Metropolitan Opera on DVD, Mephistopheles on Kent Nagano’s Grammy-winning account of Busoni’s Doktor Faust on Warner, and Flavio opposite Joan Sutherland and Luciano Pavarotti on Richard Bonynge’s Norma.