The Canadian Opera Company was saddened to learn of the recent passing of acclaimed Canadian tenor Jon Vickers.

A celebrated artist, Mr. Vickers made his stage debut with the Toronto Opera Festival (as the COC was then known) as the Duke in Rigoletto in 1954.  He would go on to appear with the company in several productions over the next few years: Filipeto in School for Fathers (1954), Alfredo in La Traviata (1955), Alfred in Die Fledermaus (1955) and Don José in Carmen (1955), before going on to sing major roles at Covent Garden and the Metropolitan Opera and embark on what would be a legendary career.

Vickers would return to the COC on only one more occasion, but with a particularly fortuitous outcome for the COC and its audiences. His appearance as Don José in the 1964 production of Carmen allowed him to quickly step-in and sing Radamès for the also-running production of Aida, covering for an accident-prone Richard Cassilly.

You can learn more about his life and career here.

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Photo Credit: Jon Vickers as Don Josè with Joan Patenaude as Micaëla and Mignon Dunn as Carmen (background), seen here in a publicity still for the COC’s 1964 production of Carmen. Photo by Alex Gray.