Jānis Uldis Zābers was born on August 11, 1935, in Madona district Meirāni parish in a peasant’s family, and already since childhood was familiar with the everyday life of peasants. For all his lifespan he preserved a real peasant’s strength, inexhaustible joy for the gifts of life, and did only what he himself considered the right thing, and could not imagine his life without his native home – “Vecais ceplis” (The Old Kiln), where on the initiative of his friends the Memorial Museum of Jānis Zābers was established, and is still maintained by the efforts of his nearest relatives.
In 1954, Zābers as a baritone was enrolled in the Vocal Department of Jāzeps Mediņš Music Secondary School. The inborn musicality and diligence lets the singer in 1957, already after the third year of studies, to enter the Vocal Department of Latvian State Conservatoire (now the Academy of Music) and to graduate from it as a tenor, again, one year earlier than his course-mates. The unusually vivid vocal talents of the singer suggested, in the framework of the trainees’ exchange, to promote him, in 1961, as a postgraduate for studies in Italy.
First of all, at the end of 1962, Jānis Zābers started his studies at Santa Cecilia Conservatoire in Rome, under the direction of Professor Giorgio Favaretto, teacher of Renate Tebaldi. Whereas in March 1963, while visiting La Scala Opera Theatre of Milan, he received the invitation of the director Antonio Giringelli and the conductor Enrico Piazza to train in Milan and become a student of Genaro Barra, vocal coach of the Neapolitan school.
During the two years in Italy Zābers’ voice became more sonorous, more metallic. His singing – captivating, crystal clear, logical as to phrasing, with clear diction and technically excellent performance in the sonority of all registers obtained the designation “golden timbre”. Mutual sympathy linked Jānis with the outstanding Italian tenor Giuseppe di Stefano, who highly appreciated the vocal talent of Zābers.
His study mate Muslim Magomayev at some point said: “It is hard to find another singer with such a peculiar timbre, such velvety modulations and a silky style of performance. Jānis Zābers introduced baritone force to tenor parts. Powerful free lower key, impeccably nice flow of middle section, and saturated high notes! The sounding of his voice in all its richness of timbres and registers pours into the souls of the audience, making it enjoy his singing .. and to fall in love with his beautiful clear personality. He was a man of wide culture, always just in his judgments. Envy of other people’s success was alien to him. Quite the contrary, he enjoyed the success of each his colleague with peaceful harmonious benevolence.”
In the spring of 1964, director Giringelli offered Zābers to stay in Milan for one more year, because he was sure he was training the new soloist of “La Scala”. However, Zābers could not reconcile with the long absence from his native land. On April 28, 1964, he wrote: “An artist cannot create, if he is just being a guest, not in his real home. How I long to be at my home in the springtime, to fish and to listen to nightingales. I would never change violets, familiar with the silence of the forest, for the Italian roses.” His love for nature manifested also in music, when he sang folk-songs, chamber music and later also the Neapolitan songs.
The creative life of Jānis Zābers was short, but very vivid. God had granted to him all that a singer would like. He fascinated any spectator not only with his splendid vocal technique and stage temperament, but also with cordiality, charm, sensuality, tall height and masculine attraction. Women called him one of the most beautiful men of his time, the tenderness and strength of which is integral part of the performance. He could turn even the smallest song into a unique masterpiece. Zābers loved music and singing so much that each time he came on the stage was a festivity for him. His splendid voice and vigorous appearance would fit the stages of the best opera theatres of the world, however, he was given just eleven years between his first and last appearance on the stage of Latvian National Opera (1959–1970).
No doubt – among all generations of Latvian opera artists as to his vocal talent Jānis Zābers will remain the most brilliant, most gifted. During the years of his short, but very vivid stage career, he has participated in the performances of 27 operas, where he mostly was given leading roles. Unfortunately, not everything Zābers sang on the stage was recorded and not everything that can be listened in recordings was performed on the opera stage.
Although Zābers’ heart and soul undoubtedly belonged to opera music and 300 opera performances in which he sang, alongside with stage performances during his short creative life he also participated in the concerts of various music genres, the total number of which exceeds one thousand and a half. Especially popular in the whole former Soviet Union were Zābers’ performances of Neapolitan songs, in which he shined not only with his excellent Italian language, but also with his voice which radiated warmth. These songs also were recorded and published on discs.
The inhumanly intensive working regime damaged the singer’s health and at the end of the 60-ties serious health problems appeared – loss of voice, vertigo, headache, which obstructed his creative activities. In 1971 he was diagnosed with brain tumor. An operation was carried out and depraved Zābers of his incredible vocal capabilities. The next two years the artist literally was fighting with death, although he hid his true state of health from everybody till the very last moment.
The role of Andrei Khovansky in the opera “Khovanshchina” by Modest Mussorgsky, which is fully recorded, became not only the last role performed by Jānis Zābers on the opera stage, but also the opera itself – his last performance. On December 20, 1970, Jānis Zābers as Andrei last time appeared on the opera stage. At the end of the performance, the fanatic Marfa draws him with her on the bonfire built by Old Believers. A new day breaks, but Andrei does not see it, engulfed by flames. A strange, inexplicable feeling invades, thinking about the last performance of Jānis Zābers. The end of the opera seems like a symbolic end of the actor’s life, which came to the end on March 25, 1973. The funeral of the nation’s favourite artist was attended by so many people that the traffic had to be stopped in the centre of Riga.
In Latvia, the vocal achievement of Jānis Zābers in the widest range of music genres is still not surpassed. He has sung the opera arias not only in the major opera houses of the world (“La Scala” in Italy, “Bolshoi Theatre” in Moscow, “Marinsky Opera Theatre” in St. Petersburgh etc.), but also chamber music, Neapolitan songs and children songs both on the stage and studio recordings. The vocal heritage of this artist is so wide and many-sided, that makes any singer want to bear a resemblance to him.
Therefore the program of the competition is rooted in the creative biography of Jānis Zābers and the participants are given the task to perform the vocal music formerly performed by our outstanding countryman – folk-songs acapella, to appraise the components of participants’ hearing quality, chamber music, romances, Neapolitan songs, opera arias, popular and children’s songs. Consequently, the music material of the competition is wide and interesting enough.
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