Kenneth Neate

Kenneth (Ken) Neate (28 July 1914 – 27 June 1997) was an Australian operatic and concert tenor, opera producer and singing teacher, composer and author. He appeared at the Bayreuth Festival in 1963 as Loge in Das Rheingold and was noted as a dramatic tenor in German, French, and Italian repertoire in opera houses in England, France, Italy, Austria, Germany, and Australia. His operatic career lasted 38 years, followed by ten years as lecturer in Voice and Opera Studies at the Richard Strauss Conservatorium in Munich. He studied piano and voice in Newcastle and had further study in Sydney with Lute Drummond and Lionello Cecil. Neate joined the New South Wales Police Force, serving in inner-city stations in Sydney. He became a soloist in the NSW Police Choir and soon became known as "The Singing Policeman".

He sang his first operatic roles as Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly in Brisbane in 1937 and the title role in a concert performance of Lohengrin with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Joseph Post. ), 1960, 1968 and 1970 (that year as Florestan in Fidelio

In Italy in the mid-1950s, he had a major career in the houses of San Carlo (Naples), La Fenice (Venice), Parma and Bologna, in roles such as Faust, Calaf (Turandot) and Don Carlo, and appearing with such major names as Tullio Serafin, Carlo Tagliabue, Cesare Siepi, Ettore Bastianini, Gigliola Frazzoni, Antonietta Stella and Ebe Stignani.

Ken Neate died in Munich, Germany on 27 June 1997. His book Great singing: Common Sense in Singing was completed at his death, and was published in 2001 by his widow.

His maternal cousin was the tenor Jon Weaving.