New Delhi, Feb. 21 -- Jose van Dam, an award-winning Belgian bass-baritone opera singer who created the title role in Olivier Messiaen's "Saint Francois 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 Jose 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 Opera Royal de Wallonie-Liege.

He sang at the Paris Opera for the first time two years later a...