José van Dam

Joseph Baron Van Damme born 27 August 1940 in Brussels known as José van Dam is a Belgian bassbaritone 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 Rossinis 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 Bizets 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 Milhauds La mère coupable in 1966 Lorin Maazel heard van Dam and invited him to record Ravels Lheure espagnole with him for Deutsche Grammophon In 1967 Maazel asked him to join the Deutsche Oper in Berlin Van Dam has performed at LOpéra 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 AixenProvence 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 lAcadémie française du Disque 1979 Orphée dOr de lAcadémie Lyrique Française 1980 the European Critics Prize 1985 Diapason dOr and Prix de la Nouvelle Académie du Disque 1993 and the Orphée dOr de lAcadémie 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 Belgiums Crown Prince Philippe and Mathilde dUdekem dAcoz 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 bassbaritone 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 WelserMöst Source Article José van Dam from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30