cover image Jon Vickers

Jon Vickers

Jeannie Williams, Jonathan Vickers. Northeastern University Press, $65 (424pp) ISBN 978-1-55553-408-0

Unquestionably one of this century's foremost vocal artists, Vickers (b. 1926) is renowned for the emotional intensity and distinctive interpretations he has brought to his performances. He is also notorious for violent rages, intolerance and arrogance, which have alienated many associates and colleagues. In this remarkably even-handed, unauthorized account, Williams, a USA Today columnist, engagingly depicts the conflicting aspects of a great artist's personality and how they shaped his career. Both music and religion were prominent in the large Canadian family into which Vickers was born. A dichotomy eventually evolved in him between the humility of a deeply religious man who believed his voice was ""God-given"" and the egotism of the internationally renowned operatic tenor who was intensely conscious of his greatness. For example, Vickers believed that ""conductors, singers and other performers are not artists; they merely serve the true creative artists, the composers."" However, in 1975, Benjamin Britten, the composer of Peter Grimes (one of Vickers's signature roles), became so enraged by the tenor's portrayal that he actually walked out of two performances in which Vickers was singing. Vickers has always been devoted to his family, insisting on privacy and sacrificing engagements when his wife became ill and later died from cancer. Between performances, Vickers returned to his farm, becoming so absorbed with outdoor work that in one concert program listing he mentioned his ""second career as a cattle farmer."" Williams gives his subject, as well as Vickers's colleagues, a welcome respect and objectivity--qualities that are rarely found in the insular world of opera. (Dec.)