Tag Archives: Jon Vickers

Thinking of Diefenbaker for Canada Day

A good performance can change how you understand a piece. I stumbled upon a YouTube recording that I keep listening to over and over, a piece I thought I knew. There are two contrasting tenor arias in Mendelssohn’s oratorio Elijah. … Continue reading

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Remembering Jon Vickers, Canadian Heldentenor

There have been two singers above all the others who mattered to me as I grew up. Both were tenors.  I’ve talked about Jussi Björling, my touchstone of vocal perfection and the subject of a recent pilgrimage in Sweden. The other … Continue reading

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Solti Centennial

The centennial of Hungarian conductor Georg Solti arrives on October 21st.  As a Hungarian I always found it irritating that he called himself “Georg” rather than “György”.  But of course whenever I say that name aloud –and unless you’re Magyar … Continue reading

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Let us now praise famous women

Serendipity is such a wonderful word.  I love that it’s a big long word, implying something complex, when in fact it sounds like a series of vocal accidents.  Accidents are not to be confused with serendipity, for the word always … Continue reading

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