Jon Vickers as Pollione Norma Orange 1974

Gino Sinimberghi as Flavio. Thèatre Antique d'Orange. July 20th, 1974. From Dreamlife DMLB 21 1992

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Opera
• Bellini
• Norma
• Montserrat
• Caballe
• Pollione
• Jon
• Vickers
• Orange

[Mexi20000]

The people are alway talk about a big or about a smal voice at the actual singers. Take a look to this great Tenor John Vickers. This is a big Tenor Voice. Andrea Bocelli with this John vickers on stage and you hear nothing from Bocelli.

Bravo John!!!!

[tonyantony1]

Vickers was the Callas of tenors.

[Maripudelmonaco]

@dayanvolpe - Totalmente de acuerdo, el mejor.

[dayanvolpe]

great voice but Mario del Monaco is the best i this role!!

[flicfan416]

In my personal opinion, this HAS to be the greatest reading of Pollione. Listen to all those baritone lines! LIstening to Vickers brings a whole new meaning to the score, like hearing Callas sing Lucia for the first time.

[ezev8logos]

@phanface yes, it may be, I think he never paid much attention to his high notes and yet he is one of the greatest tenors in history, maybe if he had improved his high notes today he would be associated with another type of repertoire

[phanface]

@ezev8logos I remember reading in Vickers's biography that his reason for not singing Pollione at first was because he claimed to not have a high C, but your (welcome) comment makes me question his sincerity. This was also when he first worked with Callas in Medea, and though the two seemed to work together well, perhaps he didn't want to become "Callas's tenor". 

[ezev8logos]

@Richiesutherland you can hear a lot of his high b on otello's duet "cho m'accora" and also the short high c on "dio ti giocondi sposo" from the live recordings (not karajan's film)

[ezev8logos]

@tenorrman you're absolutely right!!! who cares about the high notes when you hear such an amazing artist, still you can hear a lot of his high b on otello's duet "cho m'accora" and also the short high c on "dio ti giocondi sposo" from the live recordings (not karajan's film)

[ezev8logos]

@phanface he always sang the short high c at the end of otello's duet "dio ti giocondi"

[federic017]

Uno dei pochi Pollione, "CREDIBILI "dopo Corelli e Del Monaco...saluti

[philipvanlidth]

@Richiesutherland I might add that his companion uses many of the same empty gestures, so that this might have been more the stage director's fault than Vickers'...