Vickers' career spanned three decades and took him from
church choirs in small-town western Canada to the world's
greatest stages before his retirement in 1988.
"We have received the following message from Jon Vickers’
family, our thoughts are with them – 'It is with great sadness
that we announce the passing of our father, Jon Vickers, after a
prolonged struggle with Alzheimer’s disease,'" the Royal Opera
House said on its website.
Vickers made his international debut at London's Convent Garden
in 1957 before joining the Metropolitan Opera in New York three
years later. He would go on to perform some of the most
dramatically heroic roles in opera - his Siegmund in Wagner's
"Die Walkuere" (The Valkyrie) became a signature role - in
Paris, Milan, Vienna and elsewhere.
"A Vickers performance in the opera house was a grand, sweeping,
overriding affair," Opera News said in an obituary on its
website on Saturday. "It was often a performance of extremes,
something more readily comparable to what Marlon Brando or Zero
Mostel might do than to what his operatic colleagues did."
(Writing by Amran Abocar; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
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