José van Dam, who has died aged 85, was a Belgian bass-baritone known for his smooth voice, self-effacing nature and old-school manners; in 1998 he was ennobled by King Albert II of the Belgians as Baron Van Damme.
He was the go-to toreador Escamillo in Bizet’s Carmen, created the title role in Messiaen’s St Francis of Assisi for the Paris Opera in 1983, and the following year tackled the psychological and musical demands of Berg’s Wozzeck in one of his rare appearances at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
Van Dam not only possessed a resonant bass-baritone voice but was also a versatile actor. Early in his career he was a lithe Don Giovanni; later he gave penetrating portrayals of Verdi’s Philippe II (Don Carlos), Strauss’s Jochanaan (Salome) and Enescu’s Oedipus (Oedipe), all of which he recorded. He was also unsurpassed as Méphistophélès in Berlioz’s La damnation de Faust.
He sang his first Escamillo in Paris in 1965, returning to the role for his debuts in San Francisco (1970), Covent Garden (1973) with Kiri te Kanawa and Thomas Allen, and New York (1975) with Régine Crispin as his Carmen. “You may sing a role 150 times,” he explained, but as far as much of the audience was concerned, “it’s a first.”