Gary Lakes (born September 26, 1950) is an American opera heldentenor. Lakes was born in Woodward, Oklahoma, and raised in Irving, Texas. He made his professional debut with the Seattle Opera in the role of Froh in 1981 in Wagner's Das Rheingold, after attending Southern Methodist University where he studied with Thomas Hayward. He was a high school football defensive tackle, but switched his career aspirations to singing after a cracked vertebra derailed any hope for a football career. He debu ...