Canadian singer Jon Vickers, dramatic tenor acclaimed in Wagner and Britten

Canadian tenor Jon Vickers, a celebrated opera singer as soon as referred to as “God’s tenor” for his voice and deep religion, has died, London’s Royal Opera House stated, citing a press release from his family.

“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. During his three-decade career, which ended in 1988, he performed in Paris, Milan and Vienna, among others, often in dramatically heroic roles.

His distinctive voice was described by one reviewer as holding “a hundred colours and inflections”. He turned to music full-time after winning a scholarship to the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.

He first sang what was to become his signature role of Siegmund in Wagner’s “Die Walküre” (The Valkyrie) in the legendary theater in Bayreuth, Germany, in 1958, going on to sing “Parsifal” there in 1964.

From 1960, he was a regular at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, where his signature roles included the lead in Benjamin Britten’s “Peter Grimes”. In 1977, Vickers pulled out of a production of Wagner’s “Tannhauser”, saying he considered it anti-Christian.

A recipient of many honours and awards, including two Grammys and a Companion of the Order of Canada, Vickers announced his retirement in 1988.

Vickers “is survived by one sister, his five children, 11 grandchildren and two great grandchildren”, according to the statement from his family.