Canada-born dramatic tenor Jon Vickers dies at 88

“We have had some fundamental information from Jon Vickers” loved ones, our mind is around with them – “It is using superb sorrow we simply broadcast the leaving in our dear god, Jon Vickers, following a extended wrestle with Alzheimer’s malady, ‘” the Royal Opera House said on their web-page.

He initially meant to study medicine but his scholarship swayed his decision. At 20, he was assistant manager of Woolworth’s stores in Manitoba, singing in church choirs as business took him across the province.

His signature role as Siegmund in Wagner’s Die Walkuere (The Valkyrie) came in 1958 at the Bayreuth Festival.

In 1960, Vickers joined New York’s Metropolitan Opera, where he enjoyed the greatest recognition of his career following critically-acclaimed performances in Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde and Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes.

The statement also noted that critic John Ardoin in 1971 described the tenor’s voice as “towering” and “achingly handsome”. The Daily Mail reports that he was well known for having said, “Art is a wrestling with the meaning of life”.

BBC News reports that he was awarded many achievements during his lifetime including a Companion of the Order of Canada and two Grammys.

However, in 1977 Vickers, who was devoutly religious, famously withdrew from performances of “Tannhäuser” at the Met and Covent Garden, saying that the opera was blasphemous.

Vickers’ career spanned three decades and saw him sing some of opera’s most challenging roles.

But, while he was known as temperamental, few argued with his artistry. Luciano Pavarotti’s manager, Herbert Breslin, once likened Vickers’ voice to “an iron column that weeps tears”.

Outerbridge died of cancer in 1991.

“He is survived by one sister, his five children, 11 grandchildren and two great grandchildren”.