- Voice
Joseph Van Damme, known as José van Dam, born August 25, 1940 in Ixelles, is a Belgian opera singer. He is a bass-baritone.
José van Dam studied singing at the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles, in the class of Frédéric Anspach1, and went on to win prizes in the Liège, Toulouse and Geneva competitions (1964). Upon graduating in 1961, he sang at the Paris Opéra (Berlioz's Les Troyens), then in Geneva in 1967, and at the Berlin Opera from 1967 to 1973: his first performance as Leporello in Mozart's Don Giovanni, a role he would play for a long time.
From 1968, he sang at the Salzburg Festival, then at the Salzburg Easter Festival.
In 1970, he embarked on a major international career at La Scala in Milan, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Covent Garden, Vienna and the Théâtre royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, where he appeared in Boris Godounov, Falstaff, Wozzeck, The Marriage of Figaro, Salome, Gianni Schicchi and Il turco in Italia. In 1973, he returned to Paris for leading roles in Les Contes d'Hoffmann, La Bohème and Les Noces de Figaro. In 1983, he played the title role in Olivier Messiaen's Saint François d'Assise, which was revived in 2004. In 1997, he sang Don Quichotte in L'Homme de la Mancha, which Brel had performed 30 years earlier; two series of performances at the Opéra royal de Wallonie in Liège. In 2010, he was elected "Octave d'honneur" at the Octaves de la musique awards.
Since 1993, Maciej Pikulski has been his principal pianist accompanist in recital in the world's greatest concert halls: Carnegie Hall in New York, La Scala in Milan, La Monnaie in Brussels, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris... and on 3 recordings.
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