God, this man's voice was so unbelievable! And what intoxicating music! What a dream to be able to sing this score!

I saw James King in München at the Bayrische Staatsoper in 1979 sing the Kaiser in Die Frau ohne Schatten. From the fourth tier, the Falke aria absolutely blew the roof off. Humongous and gorgeous voice.

King has one of the most recognizable voices in tenor history. When he is singing you can mistake his sound for anyone else. I love King's voice and it was a pleasure to know him as well.

Jimmy King told me he enjoyed singing this opera the best.....in the 80`s

Wonderful redemption of "The Dead City" by Korngold, sang by the great James King. He was a marvelous artist; voice, musicality, acting, etc, all in one package!!!. A great maestro (also a heldentenor) said that probably his voice was not so dark as other great heldentenors, but he had a great squillo and stamina, that with his so "precise" music timming was a "joy to see and hear onstage"!!!...I agree 100%!!!!Bravo James King, a row model tenor to all us to follow!!!

Perhaps the greatest heldentenor of the last 70 years and a man whose gentle Christianity informed his great art. How much we miss him in our lives.

Yes, the voice is incredible. I only recently "discovered" him when replaying the Bohn Bayreuth Ring. Moments of his Siegmund absolutely make me melt. And it is obvious in the few KZfaq's of him that he is devilishly handsome and can act. On further researching him, I was saddened to see that he is no longer with us. He would have been wonderful to see.

He has been almost forgotten today, even though he was one of the greatest tenors of all time!

Gorgeous. King is by far the best I've heard in this role. What a shame he didn't record it commercially.

FANTASTISCH

The music comes right from heaven ! Hans NL

Absolutely beautiful! :)

there used to be a production of Die tote Stadt by Götz Friedrich, which was shown in Berlin and Vienna and featured James King. As far as I know he was recorded for television. I haven't seen it, but the pictures look very similar.

the ideal helden tenor sound. Saw him at the "old Met'

@bigus dude - are you serious? james king is one of the top few heldentenors of the last 100 years. and definitely a true heldentenor trained upward from baritone, not a pavarotti/bjorling type lyric. and he sang gorgeously for at least 3 decades fiendishly difficult roles like bacchus in ariadne. he is my favorite siegmund of all time. poor rep choices? what?

MY GOD - this is so very beautiful. Bravo James King. Kaufmann - listen & learn!

Wonderful singing for a heavier voice! never pushing and sacrificing tonal beauty to achieve impressiveness. Of course the high tessitura isn't going to sound as 'free' as that of a lighter voice, many people aren't accustomed to hearing properly produced high notes from a heldentenor-- well, James King had them. Superior to all the screamers of today, bravo Mr. King!

Beau!!!

make some talk with him at Vienna stage door.....

@bigus quite a dif b/w one who had a fully formed pro tenr vox in early 20s (Bjorling,Lanza,Domingo,Carreras) & one who sang pro as bariton for yrs b4 tenor(deReszke,Zanelli,Melchior,Vinay,Svanholm).Nearly alwys big voice that sng heroic rep - only exception-Bergonzi.King sang heroic rep frm begng of his tenr career, didn't begin as light tenr & gradually sing heavier.sang high parts such as in Strauss thru entire 30 yr career.well balanced registration & preservd his voice remarkbly fr decades.

James King had a wonderful and direct delivery there's no artifice in his singing, no contrivencies. Hear his Pinkerton to experience this inall its glory. Heppner would be the obvious choice for this role now but what about Jonas Kaufmann in a year or so?

not to mention his fine Florestan (it is on youtube!)

@BeauTenor A freakin MEN!!

@jschultz4 I totally agree!

@sirmercutio99 New Orleans is better than it was before, except for the 9th ward. Things are already back to normal especially since 3 years.... It's been cleaned up very well. New Orleans is still alive, and beautiful.

how do you know what he really means?

I,M CONFUSED. IN THIS CONCLUSION, IT APPEARS THAT SUICIDE IS CONTEMPLATED. tHAT,S NOT THE ENDING; THE HERO REJECTS HIS FASCINATION AND RETURNS TO A LIFE OF NORMALITY.

@FacePaster practically every tenor trains upward from baritone, thats how every man out of puberty starts pretty much. he obviously sang the rep and sang it well i just dont hear that in his voice really, his voice is harsher and more edgy and not as silky as it was in the lyric rep which to me means this music was harder on his voice, not that he couldn't do it. in these bigger works he always tends to carry weight up and they dont sound easy ever for him thats all.i think he was great ntl.

sad......one of the great beautiful pure voices of the century, lost because of poor rep. choices and over singing. whoever convinced this man that he was a helden tenor should be shot. he was lyric to the core and had he been smart about his voice we would have another jussi bjorling or pavarotti to enjoy.