Rating: 
Summary: An interesting enigma
Review: Reviewing this book is frustrating. As a biography, it is very well written and as close to objective as humanly possible. This is no drooling, glossy fan book altho Ms Williams is certainly a fan of Mr Vickers (as I have been for many years). The paradox comes as we read of Mr Vickers nasty temperament that hides behind a cloak of being so "religious" while showing numerous instances of public rudeness to colleagues as well as to his public by signing contracts he had no intentions of fulfilling (such as his Tannhauser). If a truly great artist and human being as Lauritz Melchior frankly admitted the role of Walther lay too uncomfortably high for him, why couldn't Vickers admit the role of Tannhauser was too difficult for him. Instead he hides behind a hypocritical excuse of "religion" or "morality." How moral is Siegmund, one of hsi signature roles, who runs off with his sister (who is married to another character) AND has a child with her? Ms Williams shows us that Vickers was quite similar to a composer her served so well, Richard Wagner - a genius but a lousy person.
Rating:
Summary: A book worth reading
Review: The eight editorial reviews and the readers' reviews of this biography of John Vickers are very accurate and perceptive. This book is indeed required reading for any opera goer who is interested in the inner workings of opera and the anguish and joy that frequently accompany a dedicated singer. I had seen all Mr. Vickers' roles at the Metropolitan Opera, as well as his famed concert at Carnegie Hall in which he made references to John Wayne, and, in general, rambled on with commentary between sets of songs. (Ms. Williams fails to point out that he sang one of the best "Wintersturms" of his career on this afternoon as an encore.) There is no doubt about it: Vickers' Parsifals, Siegmunds, and his two Tristans at the Met were among the highlights in the long history of The Metropolitan Opera House.(My wife and I were at the famed Nilsson "Tristan" on January 30, 1974, and words cannot begin to describe the beauty and intensity of that performance!) But there was a dark, disturbing side to Mr. Vickers that is brought out in the biography, and, I must say, this dark side disturbed me more than it did Ms. Williams. Indeed, it is hard to justify his brutal rudeness and insensitivity throughout his artistic career. Sally Presant, the soprano who sang Emelia in Mr. Vickers' last "Otellos" in South Africa, sums it up succinctly when she remarks that Vickers was guilty of "incredible intolerance under a heart of pure gold." Mr. Vickers' blatant arrogance and egocentricity is shown a few pages later when he disregards all historical documentation from Sir John Tooley about Handel's "Samson" by saying that only he knows how the opera should be staged and sung, and "This is the way it is." I also found Mr. Vickers to be hypocritical. He claims that all his objections are for art's sake, but he is frequently wrong, as evidenced by his arrogance regarding the singing of "Sampson." Moreover, he claims to possess Christian virtues, yet his cruel treatment of such people as Julius Rudel, June Anderson, Carol Vaness, and his friend Roberta Knie is unconscionable to any Christian. If he were truly crusading for justice and honor, why did he not put himself on the line in helping Ms. Knie when she needed it? Mr. Vickers frequently inferred that his egomania was justified by God, but there are many singers who inbue pure Christian virtues who never acted like Vickers. I might mention, in passing, Jerome Hines, Stanford Olsen, Dawn Upshaw, Hans Hotter, Fritz Wunderlich, and Kurt Moll. These singers did not blame everything on someone else and throw childish tantrums at rehearsals. Ms. Williams mentions Mr. Vickers' frequent and blatant cruelty to other artists, all of which is unjustified and hardly worthy of a man who claims to be dedicated to God. He was indeed a great artist, but, as Sir John Tooley remarks near the end of the book in summing up Mr. Vickers' career: He would have been even greater if "his own imagination" could have been "stimulated by others" -- that is, by the many brilliant conductors, directors, and advisors with whom he worked. We can excuse Mr. Vickers' harsh treatment of opera house directors, impressarios, and agents on basis of their unethical behavior; but it is impossible to excuse the cruel treatment of his colleagues throughout his life. I've no doubt that Mr. Vickers' had a heart of gold and that he was a wonderful family man and colleague. However, the darkness and cruelty contaminated these virtues -- a fact that Jeannie Williams brings out in an excellent book that every opera lover should read!
Rating:
Summary: A book worth reading
Review: The eight editorial reviews and the readers' reviews of this biography of John Vickers are very accurate and perceptive. This book is indeed required reading for any opera goer who is interested in the inner workings of opera and the anguish and joy that frequently accompany a dedicated singer. I had seen all Mr. Vickers' roles at the Metropolitan Opera, as well as his famed concert at Carnegie Hall in which he made references to John Wayne, and, in general, rambled on with commentary between sets of songs. (Ms. Williams fails to point out that he sang one of the best "Wintersturms" of his career on this afternoon as an encore.) There is no doubt about it: Vickers' Parsifals, Siegmunds, and his two Tristans at the Met were among the highlights in the long history of The Metropolitan Opera House.(My wife and I were at the famed Nilsson "Tristan" on January 30, 1974, and words cannot begin to describe the beauty and intensity of that performance!) But there was a dark, disturbing side to Mr. Vickers that is brought out in the biography, and, I must say, this dark side disturbed me more than it did Ms. Williams. Indeed, it is hard to justify his brutal rudeness and insensitivity throughout his artistic career. Sally Presant, the soprano who sang Emelia in Mr. Vickers' last "Otellos" in South Africa, sums it up succinctly when she remarks that Vickers was guilty of "incredible intolerance under a heart of pure gold." Mr. Vickers' blatant arrogance and egocentricity is shown a few pages later when he disregards all historical documentation from Sir John Tooley about Handel's "Samson" by saying that only he knows how the opera should be staged and sung, and "This is the way it is." I also found Mr. Vickers to be hypocritical. He claims that all his objections are for art's sake, but he is frequently wrong, as evidenced by his arrogance regarding the singing of "Sampson." Moreover, he claims to possess Christian virtues, yet his cruel treatment of such people as Julius Rudel, June Anderson, Carol Vaness, and his friend Roberta Knie is unconscionable to any Christian. If he were truly crusading for justice and honor, why did he not put himself on the line in helping Ms. Knie when she needed it? Mr. Vickers frequently inferred that his egomania was justified by God, but there are many singers who inbue pure Christian virtues who never acted like Vickers. I might mention, in passing, Jerome Hines, Stanford Olsen, Dawn Upshaw, Hans Hotter, Fritz Wunderlich, and Kurt Moll. These singers did not blame everything on someone else and throw childish tantrums at rehearsals. Ms. Williams mentions Mr. Vickers' frequent and blatant cruelty to other artists, all of which is unjustified and hardly worthy of a man who claims to be dedicated to God. He was indeed a great artist, but, as Sir John Tooley remarks near the end of the book in summing up Mr. Vickers' career: He would have been even greater if "his own imagination" could have been "stimulated by others" -- that is, by the many brilliant conductors, directors, and advisors with whom he worked. We can excuse Mr. Vickers' harsh treatment of opera house directors, impressarios, and agents on basis of their unethical behavior; but it is impossible to excuse the cruel treatment of his colleagues throughout his life. I've no doubt that Mr. Vickers' had a heart of gold and that he was a wonderful family man and colleague. However, the darkness and cruelty contaminated these virtues -- a fact that Jeannie Williams brings out in an excellent book that every opera lover should read!
Rating: 
Summary: Watching a street sweeper can be fascinating.
Review: The other day I watched a man sweeping the street where I live and it was fascinating. He took such care, and made great attention to all the little details. I was watching a great artist at work. I doubt if there is a book about him though. My point is, [if you've got this far], should these folk, like Vickers, Callas - certainly, Joan Sutherland, and to a lesser extent Rita Hunter, et al, be examined quite so thoroughly from the point of their human attributes? I mean, I'd like to be able to sing leading roles at the Metropolitan Opera, but I don't have a voice. I think I'm a nice person, though I do get hate mail for my reviews. So, again, another point, should we expect Vickers to be able to do what he did night after night and still be a nice person? Dare I say it? I don't want to get too close to people whose performances I've enjoyed, because I have the idea that they may not be very pleasant people. Likewise, I have no real desire to read about their appalling behaviour. These people are only singers for heaven's sake. They need keeping in line, whether it's by Rudolf Bing, Joe Volpe, John Tooley or Wolfgang Wagner. Vickers had a great career, but like so many singers, including Callas, Bjoerling, di Stefano, Corelli, Christoff right down to Rita Hunter, once the personality disorder gets in the way of the talent you may as well not bother. It's sad really, because there's no-one like Vickers around today. [I mean, I live in a city that thinks Andrea Bocelli is a great artist, but who am I among so many?] The fact that Britten walked out on Vicker's Peter Grimes tells me more about Britten than it does about Vickers. I would have taken it as a compliment. Maybe more people should be like me: Go the performance, applaud the performer and don't bother to peer behind the little bushes they are hiding behind.
Rating:
Summary: Watching a street sweeper can be fascinating.
Review: The other day I watched a man sweeping the street where I live and it was fascinating. He took such care, and made great attention to all the little details. I was watching a great artist at work. I doubt if there is a book about him though. My point is, [if you've got this far], should these folk, like Vickers, Callas - certainly, Joan Sutherland, and to a lesser extent Rita Hunter, et al, be examined quite so thoroughly from the point of their human attributes? I mean, I'd like to be able to sing leading roles at the Metropolitan Opera, but I don't have a voice. I think I'm a nice person, though I do get hate mail for my reviews. So, again, another point, should we expect Vickers to be able to do what he did night after night and still be a nice person? Dare I say it? I don't want to get too close to people whose performances I've enjoyed, because I have the idea that they may not be very pleasant people. Likewise, I have no real desire to read about their appalling behaviour. These people are only singers for heaven's sake. They need keeping in line, whether it's by Rudolf Bing, Joe Volpe, John Tooley or Wolfgang Wagner. Vickers had a great career, but like so many singers, including Callas, Bjoerling, di Stefano, Corelli, Christoff right down to Rita Hunter, once the personality disorder gets in the way of the talent you may as well not bother. It's sad really, because there's no-one like Vickers around today. [I mean, I live in a city that thinks Andrea Bocelli is a great artist, but who am I among so many?] The fact that Britten walked out on Vicker's Peter Grimes tells me more about Britten than it does about Vickers. I would have taken it as a compliment. Maybe more people should be like me: Go the performance, applaud the performer and don't bother to peer behind the little bushes they are hiding behind.
Rating: 
Summary: Critic's Comments
Review: This is one of the finest biographies of a singer I have ever read. (And I've read a lot.) Jon Vickers was one of the greatest singers of the past 50 years, the supreme Siegmund, Florestan, Tristan, Aeneas and Peter Grimes of his time. (And no slouch as Otello, Canio, Samson and Parsifal, either.) He was a singer with a unique timbre, an iconoclastic temprement, and a burning sense of his artistic mission. Like many great artists, he could sometimes act a little crazy. He was stubborn, short-tempered (he did not suffer fools at all, much less gladly) and on occasion, downright irrational and almost violent. He was also a deeply spiritual man and great artist capable of giving performances of almost transcendant beauty and intensity. Jeannie Williams gives a comprehensive picture of the great tenor, both his abundant virtues and his manifest warts. The book is well-reasearched and remarkably complete in its account of his career, considering that Vickers refused to participate or cooperate with the author. Vickers' deep Christian beliefs and convictions are treated respectfully and recognized as an integral part of what made him the artist that he was. The most fascinating chapters are the ones on Vickers' notorious Tannhäuser cancellation in the late 70s (which left both Covent Garden and the Met in the lurch), and on his relationship with the opera "Peter Grimes." As to the former, Vickers maintained that he could not sing Tannhäuser because his religious convictions prevented him from finding any point of connection with the character, and because he found Tannhäuser "revolting." But every single person interviewed for the book, many of them wholly sympathetic to Vickers, believed that the real reason for Vickers' cancellation was because he could not handle the vocal demands of the part. The author allows the reader to draw his or her own conclusion about the incident. As for Peter Grimes, which many consider Vickers' greatest role, Williams affirms that the composer disliked Vickers interpretation intensely and resented Vickers' unilateral (and unauthorized) rewrite of some of the text. (Vickers later claimed that Britten had sanctioned the changes and that they had been made in collaboration with conductor Colin Davis, but according to Williams, they were entirely Vickers' doing.) This is the very best kind of operatic biography - written by someone who deeply admires the subject but who does not allow that admiration to cloud her judgment or degenerate into fan-like gush. This will no doubt remain the definitive biography of Vickers for quite some time. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: A biography worthy of the subject
Review: This is one of the finest biographies of a singer I have ever read. (And I've read a lot.) Jon Vickers was one of the greatest singers of the past 50 years, the supreme Siegmund, Florestan, Tristan, Aeneas and Peter Grimes of his time. (And no slouch as Otello, Canio, Samson and Parsifal, either.) He was a singer with a unique timbre, an iconoclastic temprement, and a burning sense of his artistic mission. Like many great artists, he could sometimes act a little crazy. He was stubborn, short-tempered (he did not suffer fools at all, much less gladly) and on occasion, downright irrational and almost violent. He was also a deeply spiritual man and great artist capable of giving performances of almost transcendant beauty and intensity. Jeannie Williams gives a comprehensive picture of the great tenor, both his abundant virtues and his manifest warts. The book is well-reasearched and remarkably complete in its account of his career, considering that Vickers refused to participate or cooperate with the author. Vickers' deep Christian beliefs and convictions are treated respectfully and recognized as an integral part of what made him the artist that he was. The most fascinating chapters are the ones on Vickers' notorious Tannhäuser cancellation in the late 70s (which left both Covent Garden and the Met in the lurch), and on his relationship with the opera "Peter Grimes." As to the former, Vickers maintained that he could not sing Tannhäuser because his religious convictions prevented him from finding any point of connection with the character, and because he found Tannhäuser "revolting." But every single person interviewed for the book, many of them wholly sympathetic to Vickers, believed that the real reason for Vickers' cancellation was because he could not handle the vocal demands of the part. The author allows the reader to draw his or her own conclusion about the incident. As for Peter Grimes, which many consider Vickers' greatest role, Williams affirms that the composer disliked Vickers interpretation intensely and resented Vickers' unilateral (and unauthorized) rewrite of some of the text. (Vickers later claimed that Britten had sanctioned the changes and that they had been made in collaboration with conductor Colin Davis, but according to Williams, they were entirely Vickers' doing.) This is the very best kind of operatic biography - written by someone who deeply admires the subject but who does not allow that admiration to cloud her judgment or degenerate into fan-like gush. This will no doubt remain the definitive biography of Vickers for quite some time. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Peter G. Davis in New York magazine
Review: Tough critic Peter G. Davis writes in the Jan. 31, 2000 New York magazine: "I'd even go so far as to say that Jon Vickers: A Hero's Life by Jeannie Williams, ranks among the most impressive books I have ever read about an individual singer..... an astute,knowledgeable writer on opera, Williams has not only found plenty of key sources willing to talk but is also free to see her subject whole and make shrewd, fair observations about this paradoxical, often infuriatingly contradictory man." ...If the man himself remains an intriguing enigma, that in no way lessens the achievement of this objectively written, painstakingly researched, immensely readable biography."
Rating:
Summary: Peter G. Davis in New York magazine
Review: Tough critic Peter G. Davis writes in the Jan. 31, 2000 New York magazine: "I'd even go so far as to say that Jon Vickers: A Hero's Life by Jeannie Williams, ranks among the most impressive books I have ever read about an individual singer..... an astute,knowledgeable writer on opera, Williams has not only found plenty of key sources willing to talk but is also free to see her subject whole and make shrewd, fair observations about this paradoxical, often infuriatingly contradictory man." ...If the man himself remains an intriguing enigma, that in no way lessens the achievement of this objectively written, painstakingly researched, immensely readable biography."
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