Born Joseph, Baron Van Damme, in Brussels in 1940, bass-baritone José van Dam went on to become one of the greatest vocal artists of our time. On February 17th, 2026, he passed away at the age of 85.
M. van Dam studied at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels, and made his operatic debut at Liège as Rossini’s Don Basilio. In 1967, Loren Maazel invited the singer to join the Deutsche Oper Berlin. In the ensuing seasons, van Dam appeared at La Scala, Covent Garden, The Met, the Monnaie, the Teatro Colon, the Vienna State Opera, the Paris Opera, and the festivals at Salzburg, Aix-en-Provence, and Orange. He had a huge success in the premiere performance of Olivier Messiaen’s Saint François d’Assise, conducted by Seijo Ozawa. He worked frequently with such great conductors as Solti, Karajan, Plasson, Cambreling, Nagano, and Levine.
At the Metropolitan Opera, where he debuted in 1975 as Escamillo, he sang 75 performances over a 30-year span. His roles were Colline, Golaud, Wagner’s Dutchman, Mozart’s Figaro, Wozzeck, and the Hoffmann four villains. I attended his performances in the Debussy (opposite Jeannette Pilou) and the Berg (opposite Anja Silja), and they were among the most thrilling evenings in my 60+ years of opera-going.
A beloved recitalist, M. van Dam gave concerts and made recordings with the Polish pianist Maciej Pikulski. I had the great good fortune to attend two of their recitals in New York City.
M. van Dam leaves behind a number of wonderful complete opera recordings, notably his Barak, Hans Sachs, and Mozart Figaro conducted by Sir Georg Solti, and his Golaud in Claudio Abbado’s marvelous rendering of Debussy’s score.
The bass-baritone appeared in the film The Music Master and also as Leporello in Joseph Losey’s classic Don Giovanni.
The City of Berlin honoured M. van Dam with the title of “Kammersänger”; in France he was bestowed the honor of “Commandeur des Arts et Lettres”; and, more recently, José van Dam was ennobled by King Albert II of Belgium.
From M. van Dam’s treasure chest of recordings, I’ve chosen his deeply moving performance of Mahler’s “Ich bin der welt abhanden gekommen”. Listen here.
Oberon's Glade 