3 6 Great Bear Vickers

Jon Vickers sings Peter Grimes' entrance aria in Act I scene 2 of Britten's opera, directed by Elijah Moshinsky.

[@zriter59escritor33]

I saw and heard Vickers in person twice, each time in Chicago: Florestan in 1981 and Parsifal five years later. His stage presence, intensity and voice were overwhelming. I think it was Herbert Breslin who once said Vickers' voice made him think of "an iron column that weeps tears." Damn straight.

[@jefolson6989]

I was also present for the Chicago Parsifal. I saw him.many times in Chicago, including an ill advised ANDREA CHENIER. He sang dine but stylistically all wrong. Saw him as Peter GRIMES. 3.timea but not on Chicago. He owned the role to such an extent I not aware of any major opera houses staging it with a different tenor while Vickers was on the scene. Never thought I sit still for anyone else, but I must say the most beautifully sung Grimes I've heard was Anthony Rolf- Johnson at the Met. Completely different character, but he maid be realize how beautiful the score is. He didn't have Vickere grittiness of voice or acting skills but sang it as if it were Handel or Gluck. He never sacrificed beauty of tone for the drama. Check it out.

[@Greg07623]

No other artist has made the impact on me that Jon Vickers has. Lots of voices I love, but none from whom the voice comes from the body as with Jon.

[@trmichaels]

What a nuanced and moving performance. Bravo! Vickers is a fantastic Grimes, and this opera is absolutely brilliant.

[@ransomcoates546]

It was always amazing to me in the theater when he would spin out gorgeous mezza voce lines and then suddenly the walls would shake when he let loose. When I was young I was lucky to hear great singers in their prime whose vocal resonance was so profound the sound didn’t even seem to come from them, but simply emanated from the structure of the auditorium. Vickers surely had this extraordinary gift. Ghiaurov and Cossotto also come to mind. Who commands this kind of vocal greatness today?

[@TimothyJonSarris]

He projects his intense imaginative energy into the sound, which affects us long after the sound of his voice has stopped. If an vocalist truly has a need to use their power of imagination in this way a performance live forever. Thank you for uploading this, a testiment to our profession.

[@operacat1]

Amazing.......I was lucky enough to see him as Grimes, he was just overwhelming.

[@LaRush62]

Met too....hen this Covent Garden came to LA. The greatest thing I've ever seen.

[@sgnmath1234]

@@LaRush62 Met..Oct '83. I was floating on air for 5 days.

[@ezequielstepanenko3229]

This is one of the most intense performance of anything

[@photo161]

I agree. I saw his performance in Grimes numerous times in the '74 season and then again in the production's return in '76 ( i may be off by a year, sorry, no time to research now. ) His voice, his singing had a quality that I have never encountered before or since. Whereas most great voices distinguish themselves by the way they project themselves into the hall, not so with Vickers, at least not for me. His voice seemed, on the contrary, to draw you into him. To pull you, against your will, inexorably into the emotional world he was creating. It was a visceral phenomenon difficult to describe, although you do get some sense of it here. His power to draw you in was immense, and the emotional experience, overwhelming. Your eyes were riveted on him, only him, and your heart was in your mouth!

[@sgnmath1234]

@@photo161 100% agree..

[@micaelabonetti949]

@@photo161 So true, and so well said in words... (I listened to three live productions with Vickers, Paris and London)

[@greatmomentsofopera7170]

One of the great performances. Ever.

[@kymanthony4319]

“Turn the skies back and begin again”. Has there ever been a more forsaken, desperate crying out for help? Phrase returns at the end of the opera in the mad scene, when he can endure no more.

[@marksmith3947]

The greatest tenor of the last 60 years

[@jacktaggart2489]

Had the privilege of hearing Vickers in two performances of 'Peter Grimes'. Searing, brilliant, overwhelming performances.

[@tenoredavidesteban]

Such a beautiful mezzavoce! With an awesome instrument! ❤

[@jimbuxton2187]

Just look at him! Wow! The sound and control.... amazing!

[@photo161]

As essentially innocent as another of Britten's protagonists, Billy Budd, Grimes is a strange but harmless man who dares to live his life as an outsider. For that alone, he brings down on himself all the seething predatory hostility and the unrelenting insatiable hateful vengeance of the righteous community he has had the temerity to avoid. But Vickers in such passages as this above, opens the audience to the pure heart of the man. And so we are impelled to experience such feelings of pity for Grimes and his impending tragic end as are nearly unendurable...as great an artist as ever graced the operatic stage...

[@kennethwayne6857]

But how do you justify the way he treats his apprentices?

[@kymanthony4319]

That’s just it. He was innocent of murder, an outsider, not capable of fitting in, rejected. But by his roughness with the boys he was not entirely innocent either. There was no way back for him. It is genius.

[@cygavin]

Now the Great Bear and Pleiades where earth moves Are drawing up the clouds of human grief Breathing solemnity in the deep night Who can decipher In storm or starlight The written character Of a friendly fate As the sky turns, the world for us to change? But if the horoscope' s bewildering Like a flashing turmoil of a shoal of herring Who can turn skies back and begin again?

[@g.lowenklee2268]

@@sgnmath1234 err ...what?

[@kymanthony4319]

@@sgnmath1234 listen again. Herring it is.

[@brymbovoicewarm-ups9518]

Spine chilling performance. Never forget the first time I heard the phrase who can turn back skies..... One of the most moving moments in all opera... Britten was a genius

[@charlescoleman5509]

I put this passage in my senior page when I graduated from high school. Amazing words and a fantastic score by Britten.

[@sandrascott2956]

A genius!

[@37Lohengrin]

Such control of his instrument and commitment to the character. Brilliant

[@theboogie_monsta]

Now the Great Bear and Pleiades where earth moves Are drawing up the clouds of human grief Breathing solemnity in the deep night Who can decipher In storm or starlight The written character Of a friendly fate As the sky turns, the world for us to change? But if the horoscope' s bewildering Like a flashing turmoil of a shoal of herring Who can turn skies back and begin again?

[@psalmtone2008]

He has the drama of a Corelli and the mezza voce of Pears.

[@francoisduchamp570]

superbe

[@gerardmignon700]

Lui, c'est le plus grand Peter Grimes. Qui d'autre?

[@BrianJosephMorgan]

Bravo.

[@jerelzoltick6900]

I saw Vickers three times...one of the most moving performances I ever saw - to me he ruined Grimes...No one has ever equaled him in the role. Pears was nothing compared to Vickers.

[@richardlitwin4046]

I'm not sure what I make of this.

[@kymanthony3977]

Truth in art, on a stage.

[@antibotfederation2940]

fuckmeintheassbecauseilovecheesesauce

[@MrsSedley]

Nuanced, fabulous voice, but in terms of character, surely too much of an operatic scena and less about the essence of Grimes (though there 's more than one way of playing it).

[@michaelewans1283]

I agree. See Philip Langridge in the ENO DVD. He truly *is* Grimes.