Award-winning singer José van Dam dies at age 85

José van Dam, the celebrated Belgian bass-baritone opera singer who created the title role in Messiaen’s “Saint François d’Assise,” has died at 85

José van Dam, an award-winning Belgian bass-baritone opera singer who created the title role in Olivier Messiaen's “Saint François d’Assise," has died at age 85, a Belgian conservatory announced Thursday.

Van Dam died Tuesday in Croatia, said Natsumi Krischer of the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Belgium. Van Dam founded its voice section in 2004 and was a master in residence there.

Born Joseph van Damme in Brussels on Aug. 25, 1940, van Dam attended the Brussels Royal Conservatory and adopted José van Dam as his stage name when he made his opera debut in 1960 as Don Basilio in Rossini’s “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège.

He sang at the Paris Opera for the first time two years later as Priam and the Voice of Mercury in Berlioz's “Les Troyens," His profile rose in the late 1960s and early 1970s at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where Lorin Maazel was chief conductor, and with 1971 performances at the Salzburg Easter Festival as Don Pizarro in Beethoven's “Fidelio” with conductor Herbert von Karajan.

Van Dam performed Escamillo in Bizet’s “Carmen” for his debuts at Milan's Teatro alla Scala in 1972, London's Royal Opera in 1973 and New York's Metropolitan Opera in 1975, then sang the title role in Mozart's “Le Nozze di Figaro” on tour with the Paris Opera at the Met in 1976.