Oh no.
The wonderful José van Dam, who possessed one of the most superb and beautiful voices the world has ever known, has passed away. He was also a man of great character, and someone whom I respected deeply.
❝The Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel has just announced the passing on February 17 of the great bass-baritone José van Dam. He was 85.
The Chapel says: ‘Belgium loses its greatest ambassador of lyric art; the world loses a legend who, through his genius, marked the history of opera in the 20th and 21st centuries. The Music Chapel loses above all a mentor, a father figure, and an inexhaustible source of artistic integrity…. His presence within the Music Chapel conferred an aura of serenity and discipline.’❞
Here, singing Ravel: https://youtu.be/vZgtfoPuLlw?si=9jeMOUHfPkCqBVt-
And here, in Attila (by Verdi): https://youtu.be/D1jGcN0-DPA?si=hAAdICRCYdZjGtrB
He was also a superb Figaro in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro.
He was still singing (not publicly - he’d retired from the stage, but the voice was still there in magnificence) the last time I saw him.
