신의 테너 '존 비커스' 88세로 별세 Canadian-born tenor Jon Vickers dies(VIDEO)

경제문화 Economy, Culture/음악영화 Music & Film2015. 7. 13. 14:03

'최고의 오셀로'

"예술이란 삶의 의미와 씨름하는 것" 말 남겨

존 비커스 Jon Vickers 출처 .roh.org.uk

* 동영상 VIDEO

레온카발로, <팔리아치> 중 ‘의상을 입어라(Vesti la giubba), 카라얀

푸치니(Puccini)의 오페라 "토스카(Tosca)" 중 카바라도시의 아리아,

Recondita armonia(오묘한 조화)

edited by kcontents

케이콘텐츠 편집

뒤틀린 매력으로 손에 땀을 쥐게 하는 긴장감을 준 캐나다 출신의 세계적인 테너 존 비커스가 향년 88세로 별세했다.

비커스의 가족은 그가 지난 10일(현지시간) 지병인 알츠하이머병을 앓다가 캐나다 온타리오에서 숨을 거뒀다고 12일(현지시간) 밝혔다.

1926년생인 그는 1957년 영국 코벤트 가든 왕립 오페라 극장에서 데뷔한 뒤 이듬해 독일 바이로이트 음악제에서 호평을 받으면서 전 세계로 활약 무대를 넓혔다. 특히 음악평론가들은 존 비커스가 묘하게 뒤틀린 매력을 갖고 있는 테너로서 최고의 오셀로였다고 평가한다. 그가 던지는 묘미는 손에 땀이 흐르게 하는 긴박감이다. [출처 글로벌이코노믹]

[존 비커스 Jon Vickers, 1926 – 2015 ]

캐나다의 프린스 앨버트에서 태어난 테너 가수. 1949년부터 1959년까지 토론토의 왕립 음악원에서 쥐르즈 랑베르에게 성악을 배웠다. 1954년에 캐나다 오페라 컴퍼니의 무대에서 데뷔했다. 1957년에는 런던의 코벤트 가든 오페라극장, 1959년에는 빈 국립 오페라극장, 1960년에는 뉴욕의 메트로폴리탄 오페라극장 등으로 잇달아 활약 무대를 넓혀 갔다. 1958년에 바이로이트 음악제에 첫 출연하여 지크문트를 불렀다. 잘츠부르크 음악제에는 훨씬 후인 1966년에 처음으로 출연했다.

비커스의 레퍼터리는 그렇게 많지는 않다. 플로레스탄, 지크문트, 오텔로, 안드레아 세니에, 파르지팔, 트리스탄, 리카르도 정도이다. 현대 최고의 오텔로 가수이며, 바그너의 몇 가지 역에서도 최대급의 찬사를 받고 있는데, 무대에 서는 회수가 딴 가수 보다 적다. 그 만큼 목소리를 귀중히 하고 있다고 생각된다. 레코드도 그의 명성에 비하면 매우 적다. 그것은 노래가 섬세하게 정돈 되는 점이 부족하고, 폭이 넓고 때로는 분방하기까지 하기 때문이다. 강하고 성량이 풍부한 그의 목소리는 이제야 많지 않은 정통적인 헬덴 테너인 것이다. 1979년 9월에 콜린 데이비스 지휘의 로열 오페라의 《피터 그라임스》로 내한 공연했다. 음악사 대도감

by Ki Chul Hwang

Conpaper Editor Distributor

황기철 콘페이퍼 에디터

Canadian-born tenor Jon Vickers dies

Renowned heldentenor was one of the 20th century’s greatest opera singers, and appeared at Covent Garden scores of times

By Ellen West (Head of Online Content)

We have received the following message from Jon Vickers’ family – our thoughts are with them:

‘It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our father, Jon Vickers, after a prolonged struggle with Alzheimer’s disease. He is survived by one sister, his five children, 11 grandchildren and two great grandchildren. His family and dearest friends remember him for his ringing laughter, warmth, and generous spirit. A man of the land who was the most at home on his farm, surrounded by nature and his family, he had an abiding search for the truths and essences of life.

Born, October 29, 1926, in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Jon was the sixth of eight children. The Canadian-born heroic tenor was one of the greatest opera singers of the 20th century. He performed opera’s most demanding roles, Tristan, Siegmund, Parsifal, Otello, Aeneas, Peter Grimes and more, with searing vocal intensity and powerful dramatic interpretation; his performances are still recalled to this day. Vickers was a deeply religious and private man. From small-town, rural Saskatchewan to a celebrated career on the world’s major stages he was regarded for his powerful stage presence and his deeply thoughtful characterizations. He possessed a uniquely powerful and distinctive voice, which when combined with his superior acting ability, made him one of the most exciting operatic artists of his time.

In 1950 he was awarded a scholarship at The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, where he studied for five years. Invitations soon followed to sing in New York concert performances of Fidelio and Medea and, in 1956, to audition for David Webster of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden where he made his debut as Gustavis III (Riccardo) in 1957. He also sang Don José and Aeneas in Berlioz' Les Troyens and in 1958, added Verdi’s Radames to his repertory. That same year he sang Don Carlo in Luchino Visconti’s famous production conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini, debuted at the Bayreuth Festival as Siegmund, appeared as Samson in Handel’s oratorio and performed Jason to Maria Callas’ Medea at Covent Garden. Vickers 1958 Bayreuth debut as Siegmund in Die Walküre launched one of his signature roles and an international career destined to extend well over 3 decades. In 1959 he was invited to the Vienna Staatsoper with Herbert Von Karajan and made his San Francisco debut.

He joined the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1960, (debuting as Canio in Pagliacci), where he sang a wide range of German, French and Italian roles for more than 25 years. In Un Ballo in Maschera, Carmen, Don Carlo, Aïda, Peter Grimes, Fidelio, Otello, Tristan, and especially in Les Troyens as Aeneas, he was highly praised by the world's major critics. Indeed, in his London appearance as Aeneas - a role Vickers later said was ‘written for a tenor who didn't exist’ - he met the lyric-dramatic-spiegal demands with such remarkable skill that reviewer Jacques Bourgeois described him as the most heroic tenor to come forward since Del Monaco. Enormous successes then followed at Dallas, Vienna, Milan and Buenos Aires, placing his outstandingly dramatic heldentenor talent in great demand.

Reviewers reveled in metaphoric descriptions of Vickers' unique voice: ‘towering’, ‘achingly beautiful’, ‘of clarion power’, ‘tireless’, ‘ringing with truth’, ‘holding a hundred colors and inflections’ (critic John Ardoin 1971) or Herbert Breslin’s comment, ‘An iron column that weeps tears.’ After one 1964 Bayreuth performance of Parsifal, Peter Diggins wrote that ‘the audience gasped at the sheer beauty of the Canadian's voice.’ Criticized at times for seeming to sacrifice a beautiful note for the sake of character development, Vickers claimed that his approach to acting ‘hung on the music, absolutely - everything I do as an actor I find a motivation for in the music.’ His robust, powerful voice was admirably equipped to transport the listener to the shadowy realm of Wagner, and his interpretive insights remain a standard to which other tenors strive. The 20th century’s leading conductors, (including Herbert von Karajan, with whom he made many recordings, including Tristan, Otello, Die Walkure, Fidelio, Carmen and Pagliacci), repeatedly returned to his vocal (and physical) suitability for such heroic roles, calling on his rare abilities to read a composer's deepest personal intentions, and his unique capacity to reveal these dramatic dimensions.

Holding strong convictions, Vickers wrestled with portraying certain characters - notably Parsifal – and actually refused to perform some roles on moral grounds – specifically, Tannhauser. Other roles included, Nerone (L'incoronzione di Poppea), Hermann (The Queen of Spades), Vasek (The Bartered Bride), Pollione (Norma), Erik (Der fliegende Holländer), Don Alvaro (La forza del destino), Herod (Salome) and the title roles of Andrea Chenier, Samson (both Saint Saëns and Handel).

Vickers' distinctive portrayal of Britten’s Peter Grimes offered the opera world an unprecedented sensitivity towards, and an historic interpretation of a wronged human soul’s slide into insanity and is among the roles for which Vickers is best remembered. ‘The meeting of character and singer,’ critic Leighton Kerner said of Vickers' Grimes, "has proved to be one of the mightiest collisions in 20th century opera.’

In great demand internationally for three decades, Vickers sang in Ottawa's Christ Church Cathedral at the funeral of his friend John Diefenbaker in 1979 and in 1984, performed Peter Grimes in Toronto. In 1988 he announced his retirement and gave his final performance in a concert version of Act II of Parsifal at Kitchener's Centre in the Square, although in 1998 he did return to Canada from Bermuda (his home since 1973) to perform Strauss's Enoch Arden for spoken voice and piano at the Montréal Chamber Music Festival.

Vickers was a recipient of many honors and awards and held seven honorary degrees, two Grammy awards and in 1969, was invested as a Companion of the Order of Canada. Receiving the Molson Prize in 1976 and the Evening Standard Award in 1978, he was named to the Academy of Vocal Arts Hall of Fame for Great American Singers in 1985.

‘Art is a wrestling with the meaning of life,’ Vickers once said. Since society no longer resists ‘the pull of success,’ it can no longer ‘define or draw a line between what's art and what's entertainment.''

http://www.roh.org.uk/news/canadian-born-tenor-jon-vickers-dies