# John Vickers interview



## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Rare interview with the great tenor here. I found this interesting. Any comments?

http://www.bruceduffie.com/vickers.html


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## Bonetan (Dec 22, 2016)

I read this one a while back & Bruce Duffie is a treasure trove of interesting interviews with opera stars. Much to recommend from his site


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## Biffo (Mar 7, 2016)

DavidA said:


> Rare interview with the great tenor here. I found this interesting. Any comments?
> 
> http://www.bruceduffie.com/vickers.html


I have Jeannie Williams' unauthorised biography 'Jon Vickers - A Hero's Life' and the interview confirms the impression given by the book - a great singer but a very difficult man.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Biffo said:


> I have Jeannie Williams' unauthorised biography 'Jon Vickers - A Hero's Life' and the interview confirms the impression given by the book - a great singer but a very difficult man.


not sure just how much justice Williams does to Vickers in her book. As one review said: "It is a remarkable life, and indeed perhaps even a heroic one. Vickers deserves a much more thoughtful analysis than the expanded People magazine kind of biography Williams presents here. It's too bad. She clearly admires Vickers and has done a lot of work plotting out his career. But in the end, she simply does not understand her subject."

Of course, some of the blame must lay with Vickers who was notoriously uncooperative with any attempt to write a biography.


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## amfortas (Jun 15, 2011)

Interesting interview, but . . . 

"Wagner was so very much under the influence of Nietzsche and his philosophies."

Not at all. Other way around.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

A great interview I've read a number of times. I have to admire Vickers' artistic idealism, as I do his artistry, but I find his views on Wagner amusing, especially given that his disparagement of the idea of opera as mere entertainment and his insistence that art should deal with ultimate human issues could have been written by Wagner himself (and was, more or less). Vickers would have made an extraordinary Tannhauser had he realized that that character is, on the deepest level, a representation of the artist against a repressive society and not merely a champion of free love. It's also a pity he put off singing Tristan for so long and so missed the chance to perform it opposite Nilsson at Bayreuth.


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## amfortas (Jun 15, 2011)

Idealistic, yes, but also sounds more than a bit reactionary. I suspect he and I would disagree on a few points, had he gone on to specify what he saw as the ills of the modern world.

Love his Peter Grimes and his Siegmund, though. His Otello, not so much.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

amfortas said:


> Idealistic, yes, but also sounds more than a bit reactionary. I suspect he and I would disagree on a few points, had he gone on to specify what he saw as the ills of the modern world.
> 
> Love his Peter Grimes and his Siegmund, though. His Otello, not so much.


Vickers may not have been the ideal Otello, but then who is, or was? I like very much Vickers' first recording, when he was in freshest voice (and had the great Tito Gobbi to engineer his downfall). Of course we can always go all the way back to Tamagno: 



 The role is as difficult to cast as Siegfried or Tristan - which doesn't stop overambitious people like Roberto Alagna from trying it (if you haven't heard that one, don't bother).


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

A totally inspiring interview. Though I've found him to be a less tha kindly person in real life, I have always thought that Vickers gave us very special performances when he got up there on that stage. He "lived" his roles. His Canio and Otello were frightening beyond belief.
This was a very fine interview. Thanks so much for posting it.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

DavidA said:


> Rare interview with the great tenor here. I found this interesting. Any comments?
> 
> http://www.bruceduffie.com/vickers.html


I did print it out and safe it in a L.P box, thanks for sharing Mr. David.


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

Interesting interview but I don't think he would have been someone I would have talked to in a pub! No grey areas in his philosophy I fear.


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## amfortas (Jun 15, 2011)

Barbebleu said:


> Interesting interview but I don't think he would have been someone I would have talked to in a pub! No grey areas in his philosophy I fear.


I had a similar thought. I can see myself sitting across from him over beers, joining in a toast to his idealistic principles. But then, as he goes on to explain exactly what that means, I feel more and more uncomfortable and start looking for the nearest exit.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

nina foresti said:


> A totally inspiring interview. Though I've found him to be a less tha kindly person in real life, I have always thought that Vickers gave us very special performances when he got up there on that stage. He "lived" his roles. His Canio and Otello were frightening beyond belief.
> This was a very fine interview. Thanks so much for posting it.


Did you know him? I think he was a homophobic sexist Christian conservative.

I once heard an interview with Freni where she talked about how she used to be scared in the final scene of Pagliacci, and in Niun mi tema in Otello, because his presence was so menacing. And I remember hearing Nielsen say that she was once moved to tears, real tears, in the final act of Parsifal. On stage his personality was palpable as far as the amphitheatre in the Royal Opera House, the Colin Davies/Jon Vickers rapport was one of the greatest artistic forces I've ever experienced. I'm sure that he was equally an asset to the New York opera scene.

I always love the fact that an artist of his stature - a real force of nature - used to be a manager in Woolworths.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> Vickers may not have been the ideal Otello, but then who is, or was? I like very much Vickers' first recording, when he was in freshest voice (and had the great Tito Gobbi to engineer his downfall). Of course we can always go all the way back to Tamagno:
> 
> 
> 
> The role is as difficult to cast as Siegfried or Tristan - which doesn't stop overambitious people like Roberto Alagna from trying it (if you haven't heard that one, don't bother).


You probably don't want to get drawn into this, but what is it in the ideal Otello that Vickers lacked?

Act 3 of Otello was fabulous when he sang it. And I love his good taste in Dio mi potevi, the way he holds back.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Mandryka said:


> You probably don't want to get drawn into this, but what is it in the ideal Otello that Vickers lacked?
> 
> Act 3 of Otello was fabulous when he sang it. And I love his good taste in Dio mi potevi, the way he holds back.


Totally 
agree. 
I found his Otello with Scotto (despite that voodoo African hairdo) compelling and heartrending.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Mandryka said:


> You probably don't want to get drawn into this, but what is it in the ideal Otello that Vickers lacked?
> 
> Act 3 of Otello was fabulous when he sang it. And I love his good taste in Dio mi potevi, the way he holds back.


Notice I said "may." Some find his voice lacking in the Italianate "squillo" they prefer, and in later years the top notes were a bit strained. I find nothing lacking in his characterization or his musicality. But as for ideal, the singers I'd like to have heard were Caruso and Melchior. Caruso never sang the part, but seems to have been eyeing it when he died, and he and Titta Ruffo left this powerful recording of the "vengeance" duet:






Melchior recorded a few excerpts, most in German. I don't know whether he ever sang the whole role onstage; the Met let him do one act at a concert, but otherwise kept him typecast in Wagner. I think this is at least as fine in German as anyone else's in Italian:


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> Notice I said "may." Some find his voice lacking in the Italianate "squillo" they prefer, and in later years the top notes were a bit strained. I find nothing lacking in his characterization or his musicality. But as for ideal, the singers I'd like to have heard were Caruso and Melchior. Caruso never sang the part, but seems to have been eyeing it when he died, and he and Titta Ruffo left this powerful recording of the "vengeance" duet:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Ah yes, I remember these problems with his voice, in fact just reading your post has reminded me of animated conversations in the interval in the bar in the 1970s and 1980s. I loved his Otello for the characterisation, I'm not enough of a singing connoisseur to be worried by the timbre and any strain. For voice quality, I recall that I'd heard recordings of Caruso and Melchior, but it was Franco Corelli who I loved most.

It's a long time ago since I last listened to an opera, apart maybe from things by Monteverdi! By coincidence a friend emailed me today to say that she's got me a ticket to see The Magic Flute in summer, so maybe my passion for it all will come back one day.


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