Joseph, Baron Van Damme (born 25 August 1940 in
Brussels
Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...
), known as José van Dam, is a
Belgian bass-baritone
A bass-baritone is a high-lying bass or low-lying "classical" baritone voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing three ...
, described as having "a magnificent resonant and expressive voice" and being "an excellent actor".
Life and career
At the age of 17, he entered the
Brussels Royal Conservatory and studied with Frederic Anspach. A year later, he graduated with diplomas and first prizes in voice and
opera
Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...
performance. He made his opera début as the music teacher Don Basilio in
Gioacchino Rossini’s ''
Il Barbiere di Siviglia'' at the
Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège in 1960, and was engaged the next year at the Paris Opera where he remained until 1965,
[Forbes, Elizabeth. van Dam, José. The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, Vol IV p894, Macmillan, New York, 1997.] when he sang his first major role, Escamillo from
Bizet's ''
Carmen
''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed by the O ...
''. He then sang for two seasons at
Geneva
Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...
,
La Scala
La Scala (, , ; officially , ) is a historic opera house in Milan, Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as (, which previously was Santa Maria della Scala, Milan, a church). The premiere performa ...
,
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist sit ...
, and in Paris. At Geneva, Van Dam sang in the première of Milhaud's ''
La mère coupable'' in 1966.
Lorin Maazel
Lorin Varencove Maazel (; March 6, 1930 – July 13, 2014) was an American conductor, violinist and composer. He began conducting at the age of eight and by 1953 had decided to pursue a career in music. He had established a reputation in t ...
heard van Dam and invited him to record
Ravel’s ''L’heure espagnole'' with him for
Deutsche Grammophon
Deutsche Grammophon (; DGG) is a German classical music record label that was the precursor of the corporation PolyGram. Headquartered in Berlin Friedrichshain, it is now part of Universal Music Group (UMG) since its merger with the UMG family of ...
. In 1967, Maazel asked him to join the
Deutsche Oper in
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
.
Van Dam has performed at
L’Opéra de Paris, Covent Garden, the
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an American opera company based in New York City, currently resident at the Metropolitan Opera House (Lincoln Center), Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Referred ...
,
Teatro alla Scala in
Milan
Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...
,
Vienna State Opera
The Vienna State Opera (, ) is a historic opera house and opera company based in Vienna, Austria. The 1,709-seat Renaissance Revival venue was the first major building on the Vienna Ring Road. It was built from 1861 to 1869 following plans by ...
, Deutsche Oper Berlin, the
Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels,
Teatro Colón in
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...
, the
Salzburg Festival
The Salzburg Festival () is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer, for five weeks starting in late July, in Salzburg, Austria, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart's operas are a focus of ...
, and festivals in
Aix-en-Provence
Aix-en-Provence, or simply Aix, is a List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, city and Communes of France, commune in southern France, about north of Marseille. A former capital of Provence, it is the Subprefectures in France, s ...
and
Orange, France.
Van Dam has become the Master in Residence of the singing section at the
Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in his home country, Belgium, since 2011.
Awards
Van Dam is also a concert, oratorio, and lieder singer and has won international awards for his performances on stage and in recordings. Berlin conferred on him the title of
Kammersänger
Kammersänger (male; ) or Kammersängerin (female; ), abbreviated Ks. or KS, is a German Title of honor, honorific title for distinguished singers of opera and classical music. It literally means "chamber singer". Historically, the title was besto ...
in 1974, and the same year he received the German Music Critics’ Prize. Other awards include the Gold Medal of the Belgian Press (1976), Grand Prix de l’Académie française du Disque (1979), Orphée d’Or de l’Académie Lyrique Française (1980), the European Critics’ Prize, (1985), Diapason d’Or and Prix de la Nouvelle Académie du Disque (1993), and the Orphée d’Or de l’Académie du Disque Lyrique (1994).
In August 1998, His Majesty King
Albert II of Belgium made van Dam a
baron
Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often Hereditary title, hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than ...
, recognizing him as one of the finest classical singers. On 4 December 1999 van Dam was one of the performers at the marriage of Belgium's
Crown Prince Philippe and
Mathilde d'Udekem d'Acoz.
Van Dam is featured as one of the three interviewees in 'Doucement les Basses', with
Gabriel Bacquier and
Claudio Desderi discussing their approach to roles in the bass-baritone repertoire.
[Milhau, Sylvie. ''Doucement les Basses ossia Diner avec Gabriel Bacquier, José van Dam et Claudio Desderi.'' Canaïma, Orléans, 2010. OCLC Number: 706993497 (In French).]
Films
Van Dam appears in the films ''
The Music Teacher'' (1988) as Joachim Dallayrac, and in ''
Don Giovanni
''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; full title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanish legen ...
'' (1979) as Leporello, directed by
Joseph Losey
Joseph Walton Losey III (; January 14, 1909 – June 22, 1984) was an American film and theatre director, producer, and screenwriter. Born in Wisconsin, he studied in Germany with Bertolt Brecht and then returned to the United States. Hollywood ...
, and conducted by Maazel. Van Dam also appears as Philip in the DVD of the 1996 production of ''Don Carlos'' from the
Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris under Pappano directed by Luc Bondy, and as Hans Sachs in the 2003
Zürich Opera production of ''
Die Meistersinger'' conducted by
Franz Welser-Möst.
Recordings
Among van Dam's extensive discography are complete studio recordings of ''Carmen'' as Escamillo (in 1974 under
Lombard in Strasbourg, in 1975 under
Solti in London and 1982 under Karajan in Berlin), as the father in ''Louise'' (
Rudel, 1977), ''Die Zauberflöte'' (as the Speaker, 1980), ''Faust'' as Méphistophélès (conducted by
Michel Plasson, 1991), ''Les contes d'Hoffmann'' as the four opponents of Hoffmann (in 1988 under
Cambreling, and under
Nagano in 1994–1996), ''Don Carlos'' (1996), and ''Die Meistersinger'' (conducted by
Sir Georg Solti, 1997). In 2010, the Metropolitan released his 1980 ''Wozzeck'' (with
Anja Silja and
Richard Cassilly, conducted by
James Levine
James Lawrence Levine ( ; June 23, 1943 – March 9, 2021) was an American conductor and pianist. He was music director of the Metropolitan Opera from 1976 to 2016. He was terminated from all his positions and affiliations with the Met on March ...
) on compact disc.
With
Herbert von Karajan, he also recorded ''Fidelio'' (1970), ''Le nozze di Figaro'' (1978), ''Salome'' (1978), ''Pelléas et Mélisande'' (1978), ''Parsifal'' (1979–1980), ''Die Zauberflöte'' (1980), and ''Der fliegende Holländer'' (1981–1983), ''Ein Deutsches Requiem'' (1985), as well as Beethoven's Ninth Symphony (1977 and 1983).
One of the bass-baritone's greatest successes was in the title role of
Olivier Messiaen's ''
Saint François d'Assise''. The world-premiere was recorded under
Seiji Ozawa (1983), as was the Salzburg production, under
Kent Nagano (1998).
See also
*
La damnation de Faust (Georg Solti recording)
*
Pelléas et Mélisande (Herbert von Karajan recording)
*
Le nozze di Figaro (Herbert von Karajan April 1978 recording)
*
Dardanus (Raymond Leppard recording)
References
MALISCH, KURT. (2001) 2016. “Dam, José van.” In: MGG Online, edited by Laurenz Lütteken. Bärenreiter, Metzler, RILM, 2016–. Accessed August 27, 2022. https://www.mgg-online.com/mgg/stable/12468
Sources
*Warrack, John & West, Ewan (1992), ''The Oxford Dictionary of Opera'', 782 pages,
External links
Interview with José van Dam April 24, 1981 (Mostly about Wagner)
Colbert Artists Management Inc.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Dam, Jose
1940 births
Living people
Belgian barons
Belgian opera singers
Royal Conservatory of Brussels alumni
Academic staff of the Conservatoire de Paris
Knights of the Legion of Honour
Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
Officers of the Order of Leopold II
Grammy Award winners
Operatic bass-baritones
People from Ixelles
Belgian male actors
20th-century Belgian male opera singers
Italian-language singers of Belgium
French-language singers of Belgium
German-language singers of Belgium