Jon Vickers--or not?

Jon Vickers (b. 1926) is one of the great singers of the post-war period. He debuted as Don Jose in "Carmen" in 1956, and arrived at Covent garden the next year. I heard him in the theater only once, around '72 or so, as Otello at the Met; Sherrill Milnes was Iago. The title role in Verdi's "Otello" was one of the Canadian tenor's greatest achievements. He recorded it under Serafin in 1960 with Tito Gobbi and Leonie Rysanek, and again for Karajan a decade or so later. His other great parts included Peter Grimes in Britten's eponymous work, Parsifal, Tristan, Siegmund in "Die Walkure", Aeneas in Berlioz "Les Troyens", Samson, and, among several other roles, Florestan in Beethoven's only opera, "Fidelio."

Vickers was a unique artist. His temperament was often described as "volcanic", his interpretations were frequently idiosyncratic, and he was a famously difficult personality. He feuded famously with Solti, or there would be many more commercial recordings to follow the "Aida" he recorded opposite Price in 1960. His voice was very large, with plenty of squillo and a basically metallic quality. He was never less than thrilling, often less than lovely. In fact, "lovely" would have been a term he scorned. This is a singer who can be identified within a few seconds. Nobody sang like Vickers. Nobody sounded like Vickers.

Which brings us to Florestan in "Fidelio", one of his most celebrated roles. Vickers recorded the part commercially twice, first under Otto Klemperer in a 1963 EMI set with a great cast: Christa Ludwig as Leonore, Gottlob Frick as Rocco, Walter Berry as Pizarro, and later under Karajan, opposite Helga Dernesch (it's interesting to note that both Ludwig and Dernesch began their careers as mezzos, and both finished them as mezzos after singing the dramatic soprano repertoire for several years). There is no dearth of live performances of Fidelio with Vickers; I have three in my collection, and I'm sure there are several more. I've been listening to a very interesting live recording from the Vienna Staatsoper, under Karajan, DGG477 7364, released last year to considerable acclaim. It stars Ludwig in her role debut, with Berry (Ludwig's husband at the time) again as Pizarro, the magnificent Gundula Janowitz, who would later record Leonore in this opera under Bernstein, as Marzelline, and an excellent cast under Karajan. Who's the tenor? Well, Vickers is listed as Florestan. But it isn't Vickers on the discs.

When the set was released a common caveat in reviews was that Vickers was "out of voice" but rallied to give an impassioned performance. The liner notes say Vickers "was evidently indisposed...thereby lessening the impact of his aria at the start of Act Two...in the rest of the Dungeon Scene he too achieves moments of great expressivity, inspired—like the other singers—by the excitement of the evening...". It's amazing to me that EMI, and the Vienna State Opera, have allowed this glaring error to occur. Not only does this not sound like Vicker's voice—which is immediately recognizable—this tenor doesn't phrase like Vickers, has a very different vibrato from Vickers, and is obviously (unlike Vickers) a native German speaker. There have been plenty of live "pirate" performances in general circulation with incorrect cast lists; a starry live "Otello" from the Met (de los Angeles, del Monaco and Warren)claimed that the conductor was Melik-Pechayev because they didn't want to be sued, which the Met used to do to keep control of the broadcast material. But this is DG, releasing an offcially sanctioned performance from the Vienna State Opera. This is a real scandal.

So, who is the tenor? First of all, he doesn't sound indisposed to me, he sounds a little rusty and no longer young. Beethoven's vcal writing is notoriously awkward, and the part is very difficult, but he gives a perfectly adequate performance (that sounds not at all like Jon Vickers). Comparing several tenors from contemporaneous live performances, I believe it's the Heldentenor Hans Beirer. Beirer made few if any commercial recordings (he sings Herod in Bohm's film of "Elektra") but a number of live performances have been issued. There is a "Parsifal" under Knappertsbusch from Bayreuth, with Crespin as Kundry, available on the Gala label, and he sounds a lot like our Vienna Florestan. Beirer (1911-1993) was a valuable singer, if without much of the vocal grandeur and glamour of Jon Vickers. He would have been a little over 50 when this performance was recorded, and this tenor sounds around that age. If, indeed, this is Hans Beirer as Florestan, he deserves to be credited. It's an excellent example of a worthy singer saving a performance, since Vickers must have been announced and forced to cancel because of indisposition. And because we have relatively few recordings of Herr Beirer, this performance is of some little historical interest. Baldelli left another "Parsifal", a fascinating one, because the Kundry is Maria Callas (she also sang Isolde and the "Walkure" Brunnehilde). Beirer seems to be one of the unluckiest tenors, because in most releases of that set, sung in Italian, with Rolando Panerai is Amfortas and Boris Christoff as Gurnemanz, the tenor is identifed as "Africo Baldelli." Adding insult to injury, a famous, and possibly true, anecdote has Callas refusing to kiss him because of, um, olfactory issues. Being a tenor can be tough.