An Opera Tenor Sings the Praises of Collectible Watches

It appears to be all concerning the timing for the British tenor Freddie De Tommaso.

In late 2021, at 28, he stepped into the position of Cavaradossi in “Tosca” on the Royal Opera Home in London when the scheduled tenor needed to bow out. Mr. De Tommaso saved the night, garnering enormous applause in what one British critic known as a “needed to be there” second.

Mr. De Tommaso, a rising title within the opera world, can also be a collector of watches as a connection to his previous and to milestones of his private {and professional} lives.

Timing has additionally been on his facet in relation to discovering sure watches in his travels to the cities of Europe and past. His fast-track profession is permitting him to afford watches that he as soon as solely dreamed of shopping for.

His curiosity in timepieces and opera began when he was rising up in Tunbridge Wells in southern England. His Italian father, Franco, who had moved to Britain in his 20s, opened a restaurant, Signor Franco’s, in 1995, which turned a favourite amongst locals. A younger Freddie was uncovered to opera by means of the background music all the time taking part in on the restaurant and through household outings to the close by Glyndebourne Festival Opera. He additionally started to note the watches of the restaurant’s male prospects and some high-end watches that his father had collected over time.

“I all the time discovered them attention-grabbing since as males we don’t often put on jewellery,” Mr. De Tommaso, 31, stated by video just lately. “Watches are our assertion items.”

Mr. De Tommaso and his two youthful brothers inherited their father’s assortment when he died at 55. Freddie was 18.

“I inherited a 1983 Rolex Datejust from my father, and I had all the time been fascinated by that watch,” he stated. “My dad’s greatest good friend had the identical mannequin. These two watches actually made it for me.”

That started his curiosity in accumulating watches, and he and his brothers discovered a connection to their father in what he had left them. They even inherited a Chopard pocket watch that they are saying they know nearly nothing about, a mysterious household heirloom.

One brother inherited a Rolex Cellini gown watch, he stated, and his different brother bought a Vacheron Constantin Traditionnelle. “These are extremely invaluable items and to not be worn every single day,” he stated. “Let’s simply say I don’t put on mine after I go to London.”

Mr. De Tommaso, who studied on the Royal Academy of Music in London, has emerged as certainly one of Europe’s most sought-after tenors. In April 2021, he turned the primary solo tenor in 20 years to debut at No. 1 in Britain’s Official Classical Artist Albums Chart and has recorded two solo albums of operatic arias.

His early coaching on the Georg Solti Academy in Italy continued his love affair with Rolex, which sponsors the academy’s bel canto summer season college. However final 12 months throughout a return to Munich — the place he had studied and carried out on the Bavarian State Opera and had signed with Decca Information in 2019 — he sang the lead position of Pinkerton in “Madama Butterfly.”

He was in a position to purchase his first dream watch. “My Rolex Daytona is my pleasure and pleasure,” he stated. It value 25,000 kilos (about $31,200 now), he stated, and it was a watch he had needed for a very long time: “Watches are essential to me to have fun milestones in life.”

Mr. De Tommaso stated he had needed to have fun the achievement in his singing profession and to measure a sure standing he felt had been achieved.

“It could be like I purchased a Ferrari,” he stated. “I simply love the way it seems and the racing historical past. You see a variety of celebrities sporting them.”

Vienna is one other metropolis the place he has a watch connection. Final month he completed performing “Simon Boccanegra,” taking part in the supporting position of Gabriele Adorno, on the Vienna State Opera and has sung at that home a number of instances.

“Vienna is an superior metropolis for taking a look at watches,” he stated. “It’s enjoyable to have a look at a watch in one of many many home windows and suppose: ‘Oh, that’s’ the wage of two performances. Oh, that’s three performances.’ It’s tempting.”

He bought a Rolex GMT Master II 126710BLRO, often known as the Pepsi watch due to its red-and-blue bezel, in Vienna in 2022 when he was singing the title position in Verdi’s “Macbeth.”

“I noticed it in a store in Vienna, purchased it and later flipped it,” he stated. “You don’t all the time get an opportunity to get your arms on a kind of. It was a very good worth and a very good funding.”

He bought yet one more Rolex, the Yacht-Master, at an public sale in England final 12 months. “This wasn’t for any special day,” he stated. “I simply appreciated it.”

He additionally has a Cartier Tank watch that was a Thirtieth-birthday present from his spouse, the Australian soprano Alexandra Oomens, 31. They met on the Royal Academy of Music and married in September. He had bought the ladies’s model of the identical Tank for her Thirtieth. Two months later, she returned the favor and purchased him the boys’s model.

“We have been searching for his-and-her watches,” Mr. De Tommaso defined. “There aren’t that many choices and Cartier was a extra inexpensive choice than Rolex.”

He additionally has a Ronde de Cartier that is a little more refined than among the watches he usually goes for, he stated. He first fell in love with Cartier when he stumbled upon one fully by probability.

“The Cartier gown watch is my ‘rescue watch’ as a result of I discovered it in an antiques market in Tunbridge Wells in dangerous situation,” he stated. “I despatched it to Cartier in France for full reconditioning, which took about three months, and now it really works completely. I like its simplicity, and I bought it for subsequent to nothing.”

He nonetheless has a couple of watches on his bucket listing, together with a Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso, often known as the polo watch, and a Patek Philippe Nautilus.

“The intricacy of those handmade watches is so unbelievably difficult, and so they require professional craftsmanship,” he stated. “And what we do as opera singers additionally takes years to develop.

“A bunch of tenors can speak about one observe or one opera for hours. I think it’s the identical type of factor amongst watchmakers.”