Jess Thomas

Jess Floyd Thomas (born August 4, 1927 in Hot Springs , South Dakota , USA , † October 11, 1993 in San Francisco ) was an American opera singer ( heroic tenor ).

Life

He was a star especially in the 1960s and until the mid-1970s (1962: Parsifal with Hans Knappertsbusch ; 1963: Lohengrin with Rudolf Kempe ; 1965: Lohengrin with Karl Böhm ; 1969: Siegfried with Herbert von Karajan ; 1976: Götterdämmerung in the so-called Ring of the Century with Pierre Boulez )

Thomas studied psychology at Stanford University and also singing. In 1957 he made his debut in San Francisco in a supporting role in Rosenkavalier . In 1958 he made his debut in Karlsruhe , followed by permanent engagements in Stuttgart , Munich , Vienna , Berlin and Zurich as well as numerous appearances at the Bayreuth Festival and the Salzburg Easter Festival .

Thomas, who was also highly valued as a Strauss singer at the time, is generally considered to be a bit too light-footed in today's discographic reviews. The youthful, fresh, “Californian-sunny” voice of the singer is generally compared to his disadvantage with the expressive tragedy of Wolfgang Windgassen .

literature

• Jess Thomas: Father didn't promise me a sword . Paul Neff-Verlag, Vienna 1986, ISBN 3-7014-0228-0

Audio samples

• (MP3; 635 kB) Richard Wagner, Lohengrin 3rd act: “The sweet song dies away”, conductor: Wolfgang Sawallisch; Festspielhaus Bayreuth, 1962 (MP3; 635 kB) Richard Wagner, Lohengrin 3rd act: “Das süße Lied verallt”, conductor: Wolfgang Sawallisch; Bayreuth Festival Theater, 1962

Web links

• Unofficial fan page ( Memento from May 29, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
• Detailed portrait of the singer ( memento from September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), it is incorrect that Lohengrin was his last appearance in the Vienna State Opera; he then sang there two more times Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos ( Jess Thomas' appearances at the Vienna State Opera )
• Jess Thomas in the Bavarian Musicians' Lexicon Online (BMLO)