John Lanigan (tenor)

His father was a keen amateur tenor and his mother was a professional singer, a member of J. C. Williamson's Gilbert and Sullivan company under the name Lucy Colahan.

He served in the Royal Australian Corps of Signals during the Second World War, and while still in the armed forces he competed in the Melbourne Sun Aria competition, which he won in 1945.

[1] He made his professional debut in 1949 with the New London Opera Company at the Stoll Theatre, singing Fenton in Falstaff, and Rodolfo in La bohème.

[1] At first he played leading lyric tenor roles, including Rodolfo, Tamino in The Magic Flute, the Duke in Rigoletto, and Pinkerton to Victoria de los Ángeles's Cio-Cio-san in Madame Butterfly,[1][5] Lanigan declined to pursue an international career.

[2] From the outset he had played character roles as well as what he called "the young lover parts";[2] the former included the Rector in Peter Grimes, Don Basilio in The Marriage of Figaro and Flute in A Midsummer Night's Dream.