| Voice/Instrument: |
Biography
Jonathan Stewart Vickers, known professionally as Jon Vickers (sometimes Germanized as Wickers), is a retired Canadian tenor.
Born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, he was the sixth in a family of eight children. In 1950, he was awarded a scholarship to study opera at The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. In 1957 Vickers joined London’s Royal Opera House, Covent Garden company. In 1960 he joined the Metropolitan Opera. He became world famous for a wide range of German, French and Italian roles. Vickers' powerful dramatic tenor met the demands of the Wagnerian operas, although he sometimes found his conservative Protestant philosophy at odds with Wagner's characterizations.[citation needed]
Another of his famous roles, Radames in Verdi's Aida, paired him on records with the famous American soprano, Leontyne Price.
In 1968 he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada.
Career
He studied at the Royal Conservatory in Toronto under George Lambert and made his professional debut (1956) in Stratford, Ontario as Don Jose in Carmen. He debuted at Covent Garden in 1957 as Riccardo in Verdi's Ballo in maschera and continued to appear there into the 1980s, putting his personal stamp on the roles of Aeneas in Les Troyens, Radames in Aida, Don Carlos, Handel's Samson, Florestan in Fidelio, Tristan in Tristan und Isolde, Canio in Pagliacci, and the title role in Britten's Peter Grimes. Some critics praised Vickers' Tristan as the best since Lauritz Melchior's.
He debuted at Bayreuth in 1958 as Siegmund in Die Walküre and sang Parsifal there in 1964. His debut role at the Metropolitan Opera in 1960 was Canio in Pagliacci. He appeared at the Met for 20 subsequent seasons in more than 225 performances of 16 roles, including Don Jose, Herman in Tchaikovsky's Queen of Spades, the Samsons of both Handel and Saint-Saëns, Don Alvaro in La Forza del Destino, and Tristan. At the ROH Covent Garden in London he sang Tristan, Britten's Peter Grimes (and changed the concept of this part forever), Handel's Samson - and, above all, Enee in Berlioz' epic opera "Les Troyens". He later recorded Enee with Sir Colin Davis.
Although scheduled to sing Tannhaüser at Covent Garden in the late 1970s, Vickers dropped out, claiming he could not emphathize with the character. He did, however, sing Nerone in "L'Incoronazione di Poppea" at the Paris Opéra, plus Alvaro in "La Forza del Destino" at the Met (1975). His roles also included Don Carlo, Andrea Chenier and Samson. Many critics praised his interpretation of Verdi's "Otello," which he also recorded in 1960 (with Tullio Serafin) and 1973 (with Herbert von Karajan). Vickers filmed "Otello" with von Karajan and later sang the role in a "Live from the Met" telecast in 1978.
Vickers also sang at the 'home' of Italian opera, Milan's La Scala, as well as in the major opera houses of Chicago, San Francisco and Salzburg. He retired in 1988.
Vickers' reputation rests on his exceptional grasp of characters in the grip of conflicting emotions. He was known to sacrifice vocal beauty and a smooth singing line for the sake of dramatic effect; but his basic musicianship and scrupulous histrionic preparation were never in doubt. His deeply committed portrayals of such tormented figures as Peter Grimes, Canio, Otello, Siegmund, and Samson were the keystones of his artistic legacy. His recordings of these roles are justly prized, but can only hint at the impact of his highly-charged live performances. Videos, however, of certain staged and filmed Vickers performances are available, including his renditions of Otello, Peter Grimes, Canio, Samson, Tristan and Don Jose.
His recordings, accepting their inferiority to 'real life', nonetheless carry a peculiar intensity which is often lacking in the studio opera recordings of lesser actors. The dramatic intensity he was able to invest in his first recording of Otello conducted by Tullio Serafin alongside baritone Tito Gobbi and soprano Leonie Rysanek is all the more striking considering he had not yet performed the role on stage. That Jon Vickers was able to create such an impression in the studio surely attests to an innate dramatic awareness which is all too rare in singers of his calibre.
Vickers also starred in made-for-television films of his Pagliacci and Otello, both conducted by Herbert von Karajan, and premiered the 1978 season of Live from the Met with Otello.
In 1953 he married Henrietta Outerbridge. They had five children.
