Opera Singer. A tenor of wide repertoire and multiple languages, he was noted for his vivid characterizations. Born Naftali Chiam Castel Kalinhoff, he was descended from a long line of Sephardic Rabbis, was raised in Venezuela, worked for a time for a liquor distributor, and found that he had a voice after sampling too much of his employer's product one evening. Following vocal training in Caracas and later in Germany, he moved to the United States at 16 and in the early 1950s served in the US Army as a translator in Germany. After winning the Joy of Singing contest he made his 1958 professional debut with a recital at Town Hall, then later that same year had his operatic bow with the Santa Fe Opera as Fenton in Verdi's "Falstaff"; after refining his skills in Santa Fe and elsewhere, he first appeared with the New York City Opera in 1965 as Jacob Gudek from Serge Prokofiev's "The Fiery Angel", then on March 30, 1970 made his Metropolitan Opera debut as Don Basilio in Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro". Over the remainder of his career he continued to be heard on both sides of the Atlantic with such major companies as the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the San Francisco Opera, though his primary homes were to be City Opera and the Met, singing 793 times in 57 roles at the latter, earning praise in such roles as Borsa in Verdi's "Rigoletto", Goro from Puccini's "Madame Butterfly", Schmidt of Massenet's "Werther", the four Servants from Jacques Offenbach's "The Tales of Hoffman", and Alcindoro in Puccini's "La Boheme", though his most frequent portrayals were those of the Major Domo from Richard Strauss' "Der Rosenkavalier" and Lillas Pastia of Bizet's "Carmen". While maintaining his place as a valued comprimario, he gradually began using his language skills to become a respected voice and diction coach, holding professorships at Juilliard, the Mannes College of Music, and Boston University, while judging competitions and presenting master classes the world over. Mr. Castel served as Hazzan of two New York City area Synagogues, gave occasional recitals of Jewish liturgical music, bade farewell to the stage in 1997 as the Sergeant in Massenet's "Manon", published translations of opera libretti and technical books on singing, and continued his coaching responsibilities at the Metropolitan until 2009. He died following a protracted illness leaving a recorded legacy which included complete preservations of "Manon" and "The Tales of Hoffman" cut in the early 1970s under the baton of Julius Rudel as well as numerous archived Metropolitan broadcasts.