Nathan's beloved brother

Found this in the Opera L-Archives today

Subject: Tenor Neil Wilson, dead at 44
From: Neil Funkhouser
Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2000 21:34:56 EDT

Tenor Neil Wilson died on Monday at Memorial Sloane-Kettering Hospital in New
York after a short battle with kidney cancer (Renal Cell Carcinoma). He was
44 years old and maintained homes in New York and Berlin. He spent 5 seasons
with the Metropolitan Opera where he made his debut as Macduff in "Macbeth"
in 1988. He sang in 2 Saturday afternoon radio broadcasts, as Werther and
Rodolfo in "La boheme," and also sang with the company as Alfredo in La
Traviata in the parks.

He first attracted international attention when he sang the title role in
a new production of "Werther" at the Wuerttembergische Staatsoper in
Stuttgart in 1985. Reviews from every major operatic publication hailed him
as an important new tenor, resulting in numerous invitations to debut in the
world’s great theaters. Kurt Honolka in "Opera News" described him as a
"credible, young, slim Werther with effortless, brilliant top notes, a
baritonal middle range, not without acting ability - what more can one ask
for? This has, at a stroke, been one of Stuttgart’s finest discoveries."

The role of Werther was quickly to become his calling card; he was heard
in this role in Hamburg, Bologna, Buenos Aires, and Toronto, among others.

Successful debuts followed in quick succession with many of the world’s
major theaters, including the opera houses of Vienna, Munich, Zurich,
Vancouver, Washington D.C., Cologne, Palermo, Bonn, Catania, and Brussels, as
well as with the New Israeli Opera, the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, and the
Salzburg Festival.

In recent years, he was heard with the opera companies of Minnesota,
Helsinki, Duesseldorf, Los Angeles, Palm Beach, San Diego, Leipzig, and
Philadelphia.

Harry Kupfer chose him as his leading tenor at the Komische Oper in
Berlin in 1990, where he sang over 150 performances and toured
internationally asHoffmann and Don Jose, a role which he sang there as
recently as this past May.

Earlier this year, Mr. Wilson began to expand his repertoire to include
the Wagnerian Heldentenor roles, beginning with his first Siegmund in "Die
Walkuere" in Budapest in February. In May, he was awarded the Wagner Prize by
the Liederkranz Foundation and sang at a concert under their auspices at
Alice Tully Hall. At the time of his death, Mr. Wilson had contracts through
the 2003 season for complete "Ring" Cycles in Meiningen and Budapest, as well
as Florestan in Lucerne and Saarbruecken, Dimitri in Boris Godunov in Kassel
and Edmund in Lear in Innsbruck.

A native of Texas, he began his professional operatic career in 1980 in
Verdi’s "Falstaff" at Wolf Trap. He made his debut in Carnegie Hall in 1984
in Dom Sebastian with Opera Orchestra of New York. A recipient of the
Sullivan Foundation Grant, he was also a winner of the Baltimore
International Operatic Competition, the Gerda Lissner Foundation, and the
Rosa Ponselle International Competition.

Mr. Wilson is survived by his wife, mezzo-soprano Linda Munguia of New York
City, his mother Shirley W. Nease of Abilene, Texas, his sisters Nancy Fisher
and Nora Del Bosque, both of Austin, Texas, and his brothers Noel Nease of
Littleton, Colorado, Nathan Nease of Abilene, Texas and Nelson Nease of
Austin, Texas. Funeral services will take place this weekend in Austin and
Abilene, Texas and his ashes will be buried at the A.W.O.F. Cemetery in
Georgetown, Texas. Funeral Services in New York will be held at St. Peter’s
Episcopal Church at a date to be announced.