Graham Vick
{{Short description|British opera director (1953–2021)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2021}}
{{Use British English|date=July 2015}}
{{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix = Sir
| name = Graham Vick
| honorific_suffix = CBE
| image = Birmingham Opera Company Graham Vick coaches chorus.jpg
| caption = Vick coaches the Birmingham Opera Company chorus during a rehearsal
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1953|12|30}}
| birth_place = Birkenhead, England
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|2021|07|17|1953|12|30}}
| death_place = London, England
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| education =
| alma_mater = Royal Northern College of Music
| occupation = Opera director
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Sir Graham Vick (30 December 1953 – 17 July 2021) was an English opera director known for his experimental and revisionist stagings of traditional and modern operas. He worked in many of the world's leading opera houses and was artistic director of the Birmingham Opera Company.
Life and career
Vick was born on 30 December 1953 in Birkenhead, the youngest son of Arnold and Muriel (née Hynes) Vick.{{cite web |title=Sir Graham Vick obituary |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/obituaries/article/sir-graham-vick-obituary-7fr9gn900 |website=The Times |access-date=31 July 2021 |date=19 July 2021 |url-access=subscription}} He studied at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. At age 24, he directed a production of Gustav Holst's Savitri for the Scottish Opera and became the company's director of productions in 1984.{{cite news | url=http://arts.guardian.co.uk/theatre/drama/story/0,,2197265,00.html | title=Portrait of the artist: Graham Vick, opera director | work=The Guardian | author=Laura Barnett | date=23 October 2007 | accessdate=24 December 2007}} From 1994 to 2000, Vick was director of productions at Glyndebourne Opera.
In 1987, he founded the Birmingham Opera Company and remained its artistic director.{{cite news | url=http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,,1066675,00.html | title=Enter the fat lady | work=The Guardian | author=Graham Vick | date=20 October 2003 | accessdate=24 December 2007}}{{cite news | url=http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,,931101,00.html | title=Mass production | work=The Guardian | author=Samantha Ellis | author-link=Samantha Ellis | date=7 April 2003 | accessdate=24 December 2007}} Vick's productions with Birmingham Opera included the first UK production of Othello to feature a black tenor in the title role in 2009,{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/dec/13/othello-boc-rosenkavalier-aleksandar-madzar|title= Guardian Review of Othello|accessdate=27 September 2012 | work=The Guardian | location=London | author=Fiona Maddocks|authorlink=Fiona Maddocks | date=13 December 2009}} and the 2012 world premiere of Karlheinz Stockhausen's notoriously difficult {{lang|de|Mittwoch aus Licht}}.
Vick died from complications arising from COVID-19 on 17 July 2021, aged 67.{{Cite web|url=https://operawire.com/obituary-leading-opera-director-graham-vick-dies-at-67/|title=Obituary: Leading Opera Director Graham Vick Dies at 67|date=17 July 2021|website=Operawire|author=Francisco Salazar}}{{cite web |title=Covid: Pioneering opera director Sir Graham Vick dies |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-57879207 |publisher=BBC News |access-date=18 July 2021 |date=18 July 2021}}
Honours and awards
In 2005, the National Portrait Gallery, London acquired a portrait of Vick by the photographer Lorentz Gullachsen.{{cite web |title=NPG x 127136; Graham Vick - Portrait; National Portrait Gallery |url=https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw86497 |website=National Portrait Gallery, London |access-date=21 July 2021}} Vick was awarded as Knight of the French {{lang|fr|Ordre des Arts et des Lettres}}, as Honorary Professor of Music at the University of Birmingham, and as International Chair of Opera at the Royal Northern College of Music. He was also awarded Honorary Membership of the Royal Philharmonic Society in 2016. Vick was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2009 Birthday Honours{{London Gazette |issue=59090 |date=13 June 2009 |page=8 |supp=y }} and knighted in the 2021 New Year Honours for services to music and the regions.{{London Gazette|issue=63218|supp=y|page=N2|date=31 December 2020}}
Recordings
References
{{Reflist}}
Sources
- Millington, Barry, "Vick, Graham" in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, ed. Stanley Sadie (London, 1992) {{ISBN|0-333-73432-7}}
- Jasper Rees, 'La traviata: A Nuremberg-style display of synchronised chair-swivelling', The Daily Telegraph, 25 October 2007 [https://web.archive.org/web/20071105035721/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/10/25/bmvick125.xml]
- Edward Rothstein, 'In New Hall, Echoes of Glyndebourne Old', New York Times, 4 June 1994 [http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/entertainment/stories.nsf/music/story/505483530D9463DF86257373000E9D7C?OpenDocument] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071111234643/http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/entertainment/stories.nsf/music/story/505483530D9463DF86257373000E9D7C?OpenDocument |date=11 November 2007 }}
- Martin Bernheimer, 'Living Dangerously' (Profile of Graham Vick), Opera News, June 2000 [http://www.metoperafamily.org/operanews/_archive/600/grahamvick.600.html]
- Hamilton, Mary. (1990). [http://www.folklib.net/index/discog/bibliog7.shtml#kr A-Z of Opera]. New York, Oxford, Sydney: Facts On File. p. 212. {{ISBN|0-8160-2340-9}}.
- Sadie, Stanley and John Tyrrell. (2001). [http://www.folklib.net/index/discog/bibliog.shtml#km The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians]. London: Macmillan Publishers Ltd. Vol. 26, p. 530. {{ISBN|0-333-60800-3}}.
- Warrack, John, and Ewan West. (1996 3rd ed.). [http://www.folklib.net/index/discog/bibliog7.shtml#kp The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera]. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 538. {{ISBN|0-19-280028-0}}.
External links
- [http://www.birminghamopera.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3&Itemid=6 Birmingham Opera Company biography] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160727214902/https://www.birminghamopera.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3&Itemid=6 |date=27 July 2016 }}
- {{Discogs artist|Graham Vick}}
- {{IMDb name|id=0895970}}
- {{NPG name|id=71808}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vick, Graham}}
Category:British opera directors
Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
Category:People educated at Birkenhead School
Category:Alumni of the Royal Northern College of Music