The many talents of the world-renowned Canadian tenor Jon Vickers are showcased in this powerhouse solo performance from a 1984 concert filmed for the Canadian Broadcasting Company. In four fully staged scenes, Vickers portrays the central characters from Handel's Samson,Verdi's Otello, Beethoven's Fidelio, and Britten's Peter Grimes. In spite of some questionable costume choices, liberal application of stage makeup, and Otello's '70s-styled 'fro, Vickers manages to captivate the viewer with not only his impressive range as a versatile tenor, but also his skillful dramatic portrayals of the characters in the scenes of their respective climactic crises. In fact Vickers is so convincing in each scene it is a wonder that he can inhabit the role so completely without the context of the entire opera. The concert is interspersed with somewhat awkward introductions that, while informative, disrupt the mood of the performance as a whole. As an added feature, there is a concert performance of a scene from Wagner's Die Walkure filmed in 1969 with Irene Lensky. Again the singing here triumphs over cheesy video effects superimposing giant images of Vickers and Lansky over the orchestra. --Karl Wachter
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