José van Dam
Biography: oseph, Baron Van Damme (born 25 August 1940 in Brussels), known as José van Dam, is a Belgian bass-baritone, described as having "a magnificent resonant and expressive voice" and being "an excellent actor". 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 performance. He made his opera début as the music teacher Don Basilio in Gioacchino Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Paris Opera in 1961, and remained in the company until 1965, when he sang his first major role, Escamillo from Bizet's Carmen. He then sang for two seasons at Geneva, La Scala, Covent Garden, and in Paris. At Geneva, Van Dam sang in the première of Milhaud's La mère coupable in 1966. Lorin Maazel heard van Dam and invited him to record Ravel’s L’heure espagnole with him for Deutsche Grammophon. In 1967, Maazel asked him to join the Deutsche Oper in Berlin. Van Dam has performed at L’Opéra de Paris, Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Vienna State Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, the Salzburg Festival, and festivals in Aix-en-Provence 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. 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 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, 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. Van Dam appears in the films The Music Teacher (1988) as Joachim Dallayrac, and in Don Giovanni (1979) as Leporello, directed by Joseph Losey, and conducted by Maazel. Also featured in that film are Ruggero Raimondi, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Teresa Berganza, Edda Moser, Malcolm King, Kenneth Riegel and John Macurdy. Van Dam also appears as Hans Sachs in the DVD of the 2003 Zürich Opera production of Die Meistersinger conducted by Franz Welser-Möst. ... Source: Article "José van Dam" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Place of Birth: Not available
Birthday: August 25, 1940
Deathday: N/A
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Known For
Karajan - Bruckner - Symphonies Nos. 8 & 9
2007-01-01
Karajan - Bruckner - Symphonies Nos. 8 & 9
Overview: Karajan - Bruckner - Symphonies No. 8 & 9
Genres: Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2007-01-01
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Don Giovanni
1979-11-06
Don Giovanni
Overview: Screen adapatation of Mozart's greatest opera. Don Giovanni, the infamous womanizer, makes one conquest after another until the ghost of Donna Anna's father, the Commendatore, (whom Giovanni killed) makes his appearance. He offers Giovanni one last chance to repent for his multitudinious improprieties. He will not change his ways So, he is sucked down into hell by evil spirits. High drama, hysterical comedy, magnificent music!
Genres: Drama Music
Original Language: it
Release Date: 1979-11-06
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Louise - Opera National de Paris
2007-01-01
Louise - Opera National de Paris
Overview: Late 19th-century Paris, home to Louise, her traditional working-class parents and her bohemian artist lover Julien. An opera about the tension between Louise's responsibility to her parents and her opportunity to break free with Julien.
Genres: Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2007-01-01
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The Music Teacher
1988-08-01
The Music Teacher
Overview: Aging opera singer Joachim Dallayrac retires from the stage and retreats to the countryside to school two young singers. Although the rigorous training takes its toll on both teacher and students, there is plenty of time for relationships to develop between the three.
Genres: Music Drama
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1988-08-01
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Offenbach - Les contes d'Hoffmann
Offenbach - Les contes d'Hoffmann
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Genres: No genres available
Original Language: es
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Verdi: Don Carlos
1996-03-01
Verdi: Don Carlos
Overview: Luc Bondy's 1996 production of Don Carlos was staged, recorded and filmed at the Chatelet in Paris. These seven performances were blessed with an all-star cast, loaded with important singers either starting their careers (Roberto Alagna) or at the height of their dramatic powers (Karita Mattila, Jose Van Dam.)
Genres: Music
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1996-03-01
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Il Trovatore - Verdi
1978-01-01
Il Trovatore - Verdi
Overview: The gypsy Azucena (Fiorenza Cossotto) takes revenge for her mother who was accused of putting a curse on one of the old Count di Luna's two sons: she decides to abduct the younger child and throw it in the flames. But when she is about to carry out this fatal act, the gypsy sacrifices her own child and keeps the old Count’s son, whom she names Manrico (IL TROVATORE, Plácido Domingo). Later, as adults, the troubadour Manrico and the Count di Luna’s elder son (Piero Cappucilli) do not know each other, but become rivals for the beautiful Leonora (Raina Kabaivanska). Manrico succeeds in winning the young woman’s heart, and she sacrifices herself for him, deceiving the Count’s son. Mad with jealousy, the latter orders the execution of the troubadour in front of his mother. Azucena reveals to him that Manrico was his brother. This legendary performance of Giuseppe Verdi's most successful opera was recorded at the Vienna State Opera under the baton of Herbert von Karajan.
Genres: Drama Music
Original Language: it
Release Date: 1978-01-01
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Otello
1973-05-21
Otello
Overview: Herbert von Karajan directed this film of Verdi’s Shakespearan masterpiece as well as conducting the Berlin Philharmonic. As the tragic Moor of Venice, arguably his greatest role, John Vickers (in the words of critic David Cairns) "commands both the notes and the moral grandeur of the part. … And he has the aura of greatness – greatness of heart, of bearing, of musical and dramatic conception". Mirella Freni is a heartbreakingly lovely and fragile Desdemona, while the fine English baritone Peter Glossop plays the villainous Jago.
Genres: Music
Original Language: it
Release Date: 1973-05-21
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Letter to Peter, on Saint François d'Assise by Olivier Messiaen
1992-01-01
Letter to Peter, on Saint François d'Assise by Olivier Messiaen
Overview: In 1992, Olivier Messiaen's epic opera "Saint François d'Assise" was brought to the Salzburg Festival in a staging by Peter Sellars. The distinct visual appearance that Sellars lent to the opera, where video monitors with powerful images are used as a sort of high-tech metaphor for a cathedral's stained glass, drew critical acclaim and is still talked about as a watershed moment in opera to this day. This film here is a 75-minute documentary on the 1992 staging. Jean-Pierre Gorin filmed Sellars, baritone José van Dam (St. Francis) soprano Dawn Upshaw (The Angel), and the LA Philharmonic and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen as they rehearsed for the big day. There are interviews with these artists, though Sellars gets most of the screen time. The documentary is very much about Sellars' vision for Messiaen's theatrical drama. Very little is said about Messiaen's music.
Genres: Music Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1992-01-01
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Les Contes d'Hoffmann
1993-05-15
Les Contes d'Hoffmann
Overview: Live performance from the Opéra National de Lyon.
Genres: Music Drama Fantasy
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1993-05-15
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Amours divins !
2016-08-26
Amours divins !
Overview: The most famous Scenes and Arias from French operas
Genres: Music
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 2016-08-26
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Babel opéra, ou la répétition de Don Juan de Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
1985-09-30
Babel opéra, ou la répétition de Don Juan de Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Overview:
Genres: Comedy Music
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1985-09-30
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Beethoven · Missa Solemnis (Berliner Philharmoniker, Herbert von Karajan)
2008-03-28
Beethoven · Missa Solemnis (Berliner Philharmoniker, Herbert von Karajan)
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Genres: Music
Original Language: de
Release Date: 2008-03-28
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Herbert von Karajan: Verdi: Requiem
1984-01-01
Herbert von Karajan: Verdi: Requiem
Overview: This installment in the "Karajan Legacy" series captures the acclaimed conductor leading the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra with the Vienna State Opera Chorus and the Sofia National Opera in a masterful performance of Verdi's "Requiem." Filmed in 1984, the concert features an array of renowned soloists, including tenor José Carreras, soprano Anna Tomowa-Sintow, bass-baritone José van Dam, bass Kurt Moll and mezzo-soprano Agnes Baltsa.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1984-01-01
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Man of La Mancha
1998-04-01
Man of La Mancha
Overview: "Man of the Mancha" tells the story of the "mad" knight Don Quixote as a play within a play, performed by Cervantes and his fellow prisoners as he awaits a hearing with the Spanish Inquisition. Television broadcast of the Liège production in French with German subtitles.
Genres: Music
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1998-04-01
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Ariane et Barbe-Bleue
2011-07-01
Ariane et Barbe-Bleue
Overview: This recording of the opera Ariane et Barbe-Bleue by Paul Dukas was staged at the Liceu in Barcelona in 2011, with Claus Guth as director, Stéphane Denève as conductor and José van Dam and Jeanne-Michèle Charbonnet in the leading roles.
Genres: Music
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 2011-07-01
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The Damnation of Faust
1989-01-01
The Damnation of Faust
Overview: This live recording was made at the Royal Albert Hall during one of Londons famous Promenade Concert seasons. Sir Georg Solti conducts the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in a magnificent performance of Berliozs concert cantata. This feast of Berlioz launched Soltis farewell tour with the orchestra he had directed for twenty years and was described by The Times as the unsurpassable culmination of two decades of music-making...one that summarised all that has been most admirable about Soltis long reign in Chicago. Like reading the book by flashes of lightning was how one writer described the relationship of Berlioz to Goethe in this Dramatic Legend, his way of shaping twenty scenes selected from the story into a narrative in four parts. Though it has sometimes been staged, the works drama is to be found within the music itself, which illuminates the incidents with what the conductor Sir Thomas Beecham once called a bunch of the loveliest tunes in existence.
Genres: Music
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1989-01-01
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Pelléas et Mélisande
1987-12-31
Pelléas et Mélisande
Overview: John Eliot Gardiner conducts the Orchestra of the Opéra National de Lyon in this 1987 production of Claude Debussy’s opera of jealously and love denied, “Pelléas et Mélisande”, starring Colette Alliot-Lugaz and François Le Roux in the lead roles. The production places the story in vast gloomy castle halls, a sparse but atmospheric environment that only adds to the opera’s sense of dark beauty entangled with doom.
Genres: Music Documentary
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1987-12-31
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Karajan Brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem
1978-01-01
Karajan Brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem
Overview: This unique document from the 1978 Salzburg Festival has fortunately been released on DVD and is a magical interpretation, prodigiously realized with a sublime fusion of timbres, a cohesion and ultimately, a simplicity that are truly unequalled. Listen as this great conductor produces musical nuisances that are unique to his art and how he accompanies the soloists with understanding and rapport. I have no hesitation in claiming this is one of the great recordings of the century.
Genres: Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1978-01-01
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Beethoven Symphony No. 9
1977-12-31
Beethoven Symphony No. 9
Overview: Karajan's very best video Beethoven 9th Symphony, recorded December 31, 1977. The Quartet of vocal soloists and Chorus in IV are superb. This is much better than Karajan's 1968 Berlin Philharmonic Beethoven 9 video (DG), filmed in the Philharmonie with no live audience present.
Genres: Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1977-12-31
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L'Amour des trois Oranges - Prokofiev
2007-10-01
L'Amour des trois Oranges - Prokofiev
Overview: L'Opéra National de Paris' production of L'Amour des Trois Oranges must certainly be one of the most elaborate operatic presentations. It has a cast of gazillions, characters who fly, jugglers, fire-eaters, remarkably elaborate costumes, amazingly realistic props (those five-foot oranges are convincingly juicy and edible looking), a huge set, fireworks, and so on. In fact, at times, it looks more like a Cirque de Soleil show than something you'd see in an opera house. Director Gilbert Deflo's conception and William Orlandi's costumes and sets are rooted in commedia dell'arte, but the production is thoroughly eclectic, with allusions to a wonderfully weird assortment of styles and periods.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 2007-10-01
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Don Quichotte
2010-06-15
Don Quichotte
Overview: This May 2010 production of Massenet's 1910 opera "Don Quichotte" marked the opera's centenary and also Jose Van Dam's operatic farewell at the Theatre de la Monnaie, Brussels. It is beautiful in every way--vocally, scenically, sonically, and visually--and a worthy record of Van Dam's farewell. Van Dam is just shy of 70 in this production, but you would never guess it from his singing or stage movements--a consummate artist. His is a noble portrayal and deeply moving. The Act V death scene is a model of beautiful singing and acting.
Genres: Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2010-06-15
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Mahler - Symphonies Nos. 7 & 8
1975-07-17
Mahler - Symphonies Nos. 7 & 8
Overview: Leonard Bernstein made these recordings during his wonderfully productive collaboration with the Wiener Philharmoniker in the mid-1970s when he was at the peak of his career. Humphrey Burton's direction is, as always, very fine, giving the viewer/listener both the larger picture and highlighting individual soloists, players or groups of musicians and, of course, the maestro. The video and audio tracks show their age, but are quite acceptable even for today's standards. Bernstein's Seventh is everything one could desire: dark and spooky, highly sensual, but also structurally strong and assertive where needed. Bernstein's reading does not gloss over breakdowns in tonality and the foreshadowing of later musical developments.
Genres: Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1975-07-17
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The Berliner Philharmoniker’s New Year’s Eve Concert: 1977
1977-12-31
The Berliner Philharmoniker’s New Year’s Eve Concert: 1977
Overview: The annual New Year’s Eve Concert is one of the highlights in the calendar of every classical music fan in Berlin and beyond. On New Year‘s Eve, the Berliner Philharmoniker invite an exceptional soloist for a festive gala. Together, the musicians bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new. The 1977 concert was conducted by Herbert von Karajan and featured Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 and the Chor der Deutschen Oper Berlin.
Genres: Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1977-12-31
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