José van Dam
José van Dam ( originally Joseph van Damme, born August 25, 1940 in Brussels) is a Belgian opera and concert singer (bass - baritone).
Life and work
José van Dam studied at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels and debuted in 1961 at the Paris Opera, in which he remained until 1965 ensemble member. 1965-1967 he was in Geneva, in the decade it into West Berlin, Cologne and Mannheim, since the early 1990s, he is mainly guest appearances or singing in his hometown at the Théâtre de la Monnaie.
José van Dam was one of the favorite singer Herbert von Karajan in the last decade of the conductor. He took with him including the Flying Dutchman, A German Requiem, the Messa da requiem, Il trovatore, Parsifal, Salome and Pelléas et Mélisande on - the role of Golaud is for over a quarter of a century one of the most famous roles of the singer. Also known as Hans Sachs ( The Mastersingers of Nuremberg) van Dam enjoys a worldwide reputation, at least since the famous recording under the baton of Georg Solti (1995).
Another brilliant game is that of Leporello in Don Giovanni, which he embodied in the film adaptation of Joseph Losey. Also the Elias from Mendelssohn's oratorio of the same part of the repertoire of the Belgian bass - baritone, as well as the title role in Puccini's opera Gianni Schicchi. He also sang the title role in 1983 by Olivier Messiaen's Saint François d' Assise at the world premiere at the Paris Opera and in several other productions of this work at the Salzburg Festival and at the Ruhr Triennale in Bochum.
José van Dam is of rather small stature, but strongly built, and has a warm, melodious, very bulky and flexible voice. He has mastered accent both French German and Italian. His discography is correspondingly extensive.
1973 Van Dam was awarded the German Critics Prize. The Belgian king granted him in 1998 the honorary title of baron.
Van Dam, adopted on 8 May 2010 at the Théâtre de la Monnaie from the opera stage, in a role of Jules Massenet's Don Quichotte, under the direction of Marc Minkowski.