Jon Vickers: A Hero's Life - Hardcover

Jeannie Williams

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1555534082 ISBN 13: 9781555534080

Publisher: Northeastern University Press, 1999

Synopsis

The first biography of a legendary tenor.

About this title

Review:

Although Jeannie Williams was not able to get cooperation from Jon Vickers for her biography of the tenor, he should hardly be displeased with the result. Whenever she touches on the big battles Vickers fought in the opera world--and there are many, from an early dispute with BBC television that simmered for decades, to touchy relations with the Bayreuth Festival that restricted Vickers's appearances to just two summers, to his famous withdrawal from engagements as Tannhäuser--Williams is scrupulous in her presentation of every aspect of the dispute. What emerges from this life story is a great artist who is surprisingly simple, true to his beliefs from the very start, and dispassionately aware of the value of his gifts. Williams gives us a man who encompasses three of opera's most demanding roles (Otello, Tristan, and Aeneas in Les Troyens) in one season at the Metropolitan Opera, then is asked to stand by for Placido Domingo as he toys with Aeneas in the Met's centennial season. Lack of respect in his native Canada is a recurring theme: the great Tristan shares the bill with Phil Silvers at the Canadian National Exposition, and a fitting farewell tour is sabotaged by the Canada Council.

Because she must rely on published interviews, Williams is constricted in her analysis of how Vickers developed his highly individual interpretations of his roles. Tellingly, a singing actress who could meet Vickers on his own terms, Teresa Stratas, offers the most revealing descriptions of how the singer worked. Through accumulation of details (Benjamin Britten twice walked out on Vickers's Peter Grimes; elsewhere we learn that Vickers found embellished Handel "old fashioned"), Williams gives us a sense of what made Vickers wild and gripping onstage. Birgit Nilsson contributed the lovely foreword. --William R. Braun

About the Author:

Jeannie Williams is a staff columnist for USA Today and has written on opera for Opera News, Opera Monthly, Opera Quarterly, BBC Music Magazine, the magazine of Lyric Opera of Chicago, and New York Magazine. She lives in New York City. Birgit Nilsson, like Jon Vickers, is one of the great Wagnerians. The most famous Isolde to Vickers' Tristan, she now lives in Sweden.

About this edition

• Publisher: Northeastern University Press
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 1555534082
• ISBN 13: 9781555534080
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 391