A rare document of Jon Vickers. Here, just 29 years old, the Canadian future Heldentenor sings in a live performance from a Montreal studio of Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci, broadcast by the CBC and co...
A rare document of Jon Vickers. Here, just 29 years old, the Canadian future Heldentenor sings in a live performance from a Montreal studio of Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci, broadcast by the CBC and conducted by Otto Werner-Mueller. At the time Vickers was a student at Toronto's Royal Conservatory of Music. The power of his voice and the almost scary intensity of his acting are already evident.
As Vickers described it, "In those days a live broadcast was really murderous. You started at 8 in the morning and had 2 full orchestral rehearsals, a dress rehearsal, and you did a show at night, if you had any voice left. And the circumstances were very difficult because of the primitive quality of the electronics, compared with today."
The original broadcast videotape from 1955 appears to have been transferred to film, then back to video.
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He projects far more than his twenty years allows. This video is interesting to say the least. I love Vickers and this is a great historical tool. The best operatic interpretive actor perhaps ever- but the voice always bore the adversity of the performance.
This is a young Vickers. What a gem. He does make a mistake with the Italian at the climax of the aria, but that being said- its still a rare gem. Thanks for posting!
yes he could act and maybe his voice was not a typical Italian one but it was bigger and more dramtic then bergonzi of course better for roles Carlo did not sing. Very fine tenor with no bad habits as so many have.
I always loved the way Vickers moved on the stage... like a powerful caged animal... so much tension and commitment to the role at hand. Great post... of one the of the best tenors in the last 100 years... and with the company of Bergonzi my favourite. Many thanks,
I found this as a link from one of my favourites (another JV video) and it is wonderful. He was 29 and studying at music college. Too many singers since (myself included) have started too young. The body isn't ready often, let alone the voice.
It is wonderful to see the raw talent here that went on to become what for me is the greatest acting tenor of the last fifty years. Thank you for this piece of history.
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It is wonderful to see the raw talent here that went on to become what for me is the greatest acting tenor of the last fifty years. Thank you for this piece of history.