First, Tei followed in his father's footsteps, and learned the tailor's trade so as to once take over the family workshop
in the very center of historic Perugia. Enzo was good enough to get a job at Luisa Spagnoli's, Perugia's foremost fashion
house. But as a visitor of the Teatro Morlacchi, the boy found his true vocation: he wanted to sing opera, and so in the
after-work hours, he took voice lessons with local teacher Aldo Zeetti. (Another after-work student of Zeetti at the same
time was an apprentice turner: Mario Sereni, who made a good international baritone career.)
In 1957, he won a singing competition at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna, and in 1958 the prestigious Spoleto singing
competition, and made his debut in Spoleto in Lucia di Lammermoor.
A quick and promising international career began: Rome, Rio de Janeiro, London, Dublin, Vienna, Brussels, the Bregenz
Festival. Unfortunately, it lasted but ten or so years. Tei's nerves were not up to the stress of such a career; after a
serious breakdown, he totally lost his voice, and had to return to tailoring. He opened his own workshop in Rome, and also
taught voice as a second job.
Reference 1, reference 2, reference 3, reference 4: Rome Opera archives
