Graham vick biography

Few opera directors could claim to have been as committed to the art form as Graham Vick. Over a career spanning forty years, he tackled every part of the repertory, working at the top level in virtually all the great opera houses of the world. Never straying into film, television or theatre, it could be said that he lived for opera - crusading evangelically for the value of the immediate live experience and performance that was as powerful dramatically as it was musically.

Sir Graham Vick (30 December – 17 July ) was an.

His productions were sometimes sharp-edged and even deliberately shocking: he wanted to challenge assumptions and shatter prejudices. A cruel and gory vision of Don Giovanni at Glyndebourne and a sexually graphic Carmen for Scottish Opera caused much offence — something that Vick privately relished. But you could never dispute the precision with which the action was rehearsed, the swift sure pace of his story-telling or his respect for the implications of the score and libretto.

A Vick production never looked messy: although he could relish flamboyance and spectacle, nothing was ever out of place or redundant. Both are classics. Many people from hugely diverse backgrounds love opera - and first experienced it - through his work, and we all owe him a huge debt for pointing towards new ways of making opera.

But it was perhaps in his work for the Birmingham Opera Company that Vick was happiest. This was a small organisation that for twenty triumphant years he ran himself on his own terms. It performed in disused industrial premises and used youth and community groups alongside professional musicians; the audience promenaded and on occasion was coaxed to join in.

Sign In. Remembering Sir Graham Vick The director sought to make opera open, accessible and relevant to the widest number of people. Monday 19 July , 9am. Photograph by Bill Cooper.