Comments on: happy birthday, jon vickers!

By: armerjacquino

armerjacquino — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 02:03:26 +0000

Who could fall in love with anyone’s ‘Nun beut die flur’?

I mean, I love Papa H, but seriously.

By: willlmer

willlmer — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 22:58:38 +0000

Don’t forget JV’s doing the guy in the bear suit in Bartered Bride.

By: kashania

kashania — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 19:14:52 +0000

That Don Carlo with Corelli/Janowitz/Ghiaurov may just be my favourite recording of the work. Gundula is not typicall Italianate but still wonderful. I especially love the way she soars in the high-lying parts of her first aria (the one when her lady-in-waiting is dismissed).

By: Thackeray Gnomey

Thackeray Gnomey — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 18:46:04 +0000

Sorry, Freund armer, I will shut up about Gundula. The first time I heard her was when I was about 15 on the Karajan Schoepfung, which I bought because I was studying the work for O level. Even at that impressionable age, I just didn’t fall in love with her.

By: Thackeray Gnomey

Thackeray Gnomey — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 18:43:59 +0000

Often – Purely vocally, Isokoski reminds me of a hybrid of Schwarzkopf and Margaret Price. She’s another one who doesn’t really do it for me (though I am definitely a Margaret Price fan, if a bit allergic to S’kopf), though she is a very fine singer.

By: Buster

Buster — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 18:19:39 +0000

Maybe she should get herself a “little Walter” like Rita Streich had.

But I am envious you heard her in that Attila.

By: Often admonished

Often admonished — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 18:06:02 +0000

I head Janowitz in Attila (in Berlin early 70s) with Van Dam, Franco Tagliavini and Wixell. She didn’t shout but the clarity and speed of her attack was very convincing. In the house her focus and clean placement carried very well.

In Mozart and Strauss, she was the last Walter Legge-class soprano. Maybe Isokowski gets close now, but does not really make it because the diction isn’t as good.

By: armerjacquino

armerjacquino — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:55:46 +0000

TG, this is getting dangerously close to fighting talk… Janowitz makes a sumptuous Elisabetta and sings the hell out of Tu Che le Vanita. You’re right though, it is Verrett not Bumbry.

Regina- I have a Jonowitz concert on DVD where she sings Odabella’s aria very excitingly. And there’s a CD of a Verdi Requiem, too, which is radiant.

By: Thackeray Gnomey

Thackeray Gnomey — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:17:14 +0000

Regina – wasn’t it Shimmering Shirl rather than Gorgeous Grace in that Vienna Don Carlo? She must have had Gundula for breakfast. The thought of Kleine Guetige Zwei Schuehe in Verdi seems deeply anomalous to me.

By: Regina delle fate

Regina delle fate — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:59:54 +0000

I saw Janowitz in only three roles, Fiordiligi, Donna Anna and Amelia Grimaldi. She sang quite a bit of Verdi but only in the German/Austrian houses, including Aida, Elisabetta (from Vienna on CD with Corelli, Ghiaurov & Grace Melzia) and, astonishingly, Odabella in Attila. I can’t really imagine that, but her Amelia was gorgeously sung, not as warm, feminine and vulnerable as Freni, nor as vocally glam as Te Kanawa or Fleming, but purely as singing she represented that kind of “blonde” Germanic voice, such as Rethberg, perhaps, who made successful forays into Verdi. A pity she is mostly recorded in Mozart, Weber, Wagner,and Strauss roles – although I imagine there are loads of pirates waiting issue on disc.

By: Harry

Harry — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 00:42:47 +0000

It is funny how we might be hearing what we consider is ‘the same sound’. Yet each of our ears are different. Years ago there were people objecting to the way they personally ‘heard’ Gwyneth Jones around the early 70′s. One critic after reviewing her Kundry (under Boulez recording) I remember, stated …it was time for her to go back to the vocal repair shop. Yet listening to it, I find nothing pesonally objectable! I accept that experience of a flutterly sound sensation. As the years went on, I was able to ‘look through it’ and appreciate the whole cotribution she was bringing to a performance. On the other hand Rysanek as say Sieglinde has always sounded ‘a older woman’ to me , just from picking up on various individual aspects of her singing. At the same time, I cannot critise her performance per sec. Janowitz had what is kmown as a ‘V rocket sound’ to many…you heard the vibrato before you heard the fundamental. No thanks! That ‘crrrrrrrrr…boom sound’ type of sound. As for Vicker’s Siegmund, just go and listen to Lehmann & Melchoir….the benchmark and a Master Class singing lession for all!
One cannot listen to Vickers without thinking ‘one type Vickers whine….. fits all roles’. His unique quality? Can one ever imagine Vickers in Barber of Seville,or Falstaff? He was vocally, the biggest camp ‘neurotic dramatic ham ‘ of any tenor in the last 50 years. High Art….get out. ‘Vickersionics’!.

As for jam 2063 ‘wanting to take vonkarajan over any modern conductor in wagner, just remember Von Karajan started his Ring Cycle ‘doing it in a chamber music mode’ was what he publicly professed- I.E 4 harps instead of 6 in Rheingold…. but as he progressed to Siegfried and Gotterdammerung, that concept got thrown out the door.

By: jatm2063

jatm2063 — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 22:26:27 +0000

I don’t find it slow. I find it fits what Vickers voice will actually do very well. Certainly the postlude is fabulous as well. I’ll take Karajan over any modern conductor of Wagner any day.

Vickers sounds very good in this. Can’t stand her though. Fluttery is right.

By: kashania

kashania — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 20:23:24 +0000

I'm so jealous. I would loved to have heard Vickers in person. I'm not a fan of his slow-motion style of acting (though he's OK in this video clip) but to hear that voice live!! That Otello with Stratas/Quilico sounds heavenly, as does that first act of WalkÃ¼re with Crespin.

By: lorisi

lorisi — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 19:55:20 +0000

Were you aware that before the ROH Don Carlo that put Vickers on the international map, his roles in Toronto had included Alfredo, the Duke of Mantua and Alfred in Fledermaus? As Anna Russell said, “I’m not making this up!”

I was lucky enough to see him as Don Jose, Radames, Otello and Siegmund. As someone said earlier, his performances stay with you. For me, the greatest were his Otello with Stratas and Quilico at Expo 67 in Montreal and a concert Walkure Act 1 with RÃ©gine Crespin at the opening of the Ottawa Arts Centre. Now, there was a team made in heaven!

By: danpatter

danpatter — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 18:01:07 +0000

Janowitz was always a favorite of mine, from the first time I heard her recorded Pamina. I never saw her live, sad to say, but I listen to her frequently. I am particularly fond of her video Arabella. Yes, she’s too old and plump for the part, I suppose, but she’s so “into” the role and sings it so beautifully that it doesn’t matter. That is a lip-synched movie, of course, but still my favorite Arabella video. Weikl and the rest of the cast are superb, with Solti at the helm.

By: Buster

Buster — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 17:20:09 +0000

Benjamin – I am another Gundulaflapper, just love her to bits.

By: Tom N

Tom N — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 16:31:26 +0000

Vickers was honored at a gala in Montreal in 2001 and read his remarks in English. I thought it was odd that someone who sang French roles couldn’t speak it, but maybe it was just the beginning of memory issues.

By: kashania

kashania — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 16:00:27 +0000

I wouldn’t call hers one of the most beautiful voices of the 20th century but I’m certainly a fan. Her tight vibrato doesn’t bother me like it does others and I agree that she was a radiant singer.

By: Maury D'Annato

Maury D'Annato — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 15:36:20 +0000

Benjamin: I’m with you. Her Capriccio final scene is so very lovely, and her Ariadne. Big fan here.

By: rd

rd — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 14:53:23 +0000

Benjamin, count me in for the pro-Janowitz group. I find her Sieglinde, both in the official recording and the broadcast, radiant. Again I agree with the opinion that she was particularly effective in those jugendlich dramatisch roles.

By: eugene

eugene — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 14:51:38 +0000

Benjamin, you are not. Her Eva, Elsa, Arabella, Vier letzte lieder are my real favs.

By: Benjamin

Benjamin — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 14:07:46 +0000

Am I alone here in thinking Janowitz had one of the most beautiful soprano voices of the 20th century and was actually quite wonderful in the jugendlich-dramatische repertoire? Her Eva (Kubelik recording) is absolutely stunning, and I happen to love her Elsa (again Kubelik) and yes, also her contribution to the recorded Karajan Ring (one of the few able to make Gutrune at least a marginally interesting character)…

By: eugene

eugene — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 13:17:57 +0000

To 22. Das Rheingold, with a largely different cast than during the festival, is the only one of the cycle that was filmed.

By: Thackeray Gnomey

Thackeray Gnomey — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 13:06:17 +0000

I’d always found Vickers hard to listen to until I heard his Don Carlo on the live recording from Covent Garden 1958. The voice sounds really beautiful, without the heaving and braying. It’s made me hear him afresh.

By: Una Vochay

Una Vochay — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 12:57:54 +0000

Is it true that Vickers has Alzheimerâ€™s?
- Inveterate Gossip.

Sorry Inveterate Gossip – I don’t know- I can’t remember!

By: WindyCityOperaman

WindyCityOperaman — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 12:51:11 +0000

Lucky that Vickers loved singing at the Lyric and I saw him several times. Fantastic Grimes, Florestan, Samson and Canio. For everyone else who couldn’t get “past the voice” I told them you really had to be there (ditto for Dame Gwyneth and Madame Rysanek). Still prefer his first recording of Siegmund (with Leinsdorf) to the second with Herbie.

By: Andy

Andy — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 03:58:27 +0000

I happen to loooove “Wintersturme” at that tempo! Unfortunately, Janowitz was unsafe at any speed. Yipes!

By: Regina delle fate

Regina delle fate — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 03:30:45 +0000

Grrrrr – I missed his Otello – but I saw his Tristan, Florestan, Grimes, Canio, Laca, Samson (Saint-SaÃ«ns) and Samson (Handel) all at Covent Garden – seven roles in all. I don’t think there has been anyone who sings and acts with his intensity since.

By: CelticGoddess

CelticGoddess — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 03:03:30 +0000

I never had the privilege of seeing him live but I doubt there’s been anyone like him ever.

The definitive Florestan…

By: DanPatter

DanPatter — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 23:36:23 +0000

I wonder if more of this performance exists on video? There’s at least one more clip on YouTube. I always thought it a shame that VK’s complete Ring was not videotaped. The Rheingold video is interesting.

Vickers was wonderful. I saw his Otello, his two Samsons (Handel and Saint-Saens) and his Enee. Mesmerizing.