Stephen Gould

24 January 1962 Roanoke – 19 September 2023 Chesapeake

Gould's mother was a pianist, his father a Baptist pastor whose speaking voice was so powerful that he didn't use a microphone in church. Stephen Gould studied voice in Bourbonnais (Illinois) and in Boston (first as a baritone, but soon as a tenor), and sang a bit in Chicago and Los Angeles, but without much success, so he joined a troupe that toured the US with The phantom of the opera – for ten years or 3000 performances, no less!

At the end of the tour, he was convinced his singing career was over. But he met New York voice teacher John Fiorito, who promised to make a heldentenor of him. Gould took a day job, and studied with Fiorito in the evening for three years.

After some difficulties in finding an engagement, he started his heldentenor career in Linz in January 2000, as Florestan. In 2002, was Énée at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, and Tannhäuser (his first Wagnerian role) in Linz; in 2003, Otello at the Maggio Musicale.

A large-scale career followed, centered around the Bayreuth Festival and the Vienna Staatsoper (he made his debuts in both places in 2004, and was to sing about 100 performances each). Other than that, he sang at Covent Garden, the Paris Opéra, the Met, in Munich, Geneva, Palermo, Trieste, Rome, Tokyo, Graz, Berlin... His repertory consisted mainly of Wagner: both Siegfrieds, Tannhäuser, Tristan, Parsifal, Erik, Siegmund, Loge, Lohengrin; beyond Wagner, he sang Paul, Kaiser, Bacchus, Peter Grimes or Otello.

Above everything else, Gould had stamina. In his last Bayreuth season (2022), he managed to sing Tristan, Old Siegfried and Tannhäuser, all in several performances and all in the course of one month, of course.

One year later, Gould already had to cancel Bayreuth: he suffered from a rare and aggressive form of cancer (bile duct cancer), and died a few weeks later.

Reference 1: The Telegraph, 21 September 2023; reference 2: Der Standard, 1 December 2008; reference 3; reference 4
Picture source: Gould's website

Stephen Gould sings Siegfried: Hier hilft kein Kluger...Nothung! Nothung! (1)...Schmiede, mein Hammer...So schneidet Siegfrieds Schwert, with Herwig Pecoraro
In RA format

Stephen Gould sings Siegfried: Nothung! Nothung! (2)
In RA format

Stephen Gould sings Der fliegende Holländer: Mein Herz, voll Treue
In RA format
Siegfried, May 12th, 2008
The Wiener Staatsoper has a new Siegfried in Sven Erik Bechtolf's stage production that is remarkable only for being so extraordinarily unremarkable, and conductor Franz Welser-Möst would be quite congenial, musically, but leaves a more lingering impression since he makes the orchestra produce such an overloud and tinny sound. Most of the singers, though, were surprisingly good, and that included Stephen Gould in the title role. True, in the 1920s, he would have sung Siegfried at the municipal theatres of Reichenberg or Barmen-Elberfeld, but given the present situation on the heldentenor market, even a first-level opera house has to be satisfied with a Siegfried like him. He was nowhere really good, but also nowhere really akward, and sang this monstrous part through the end without too heavy problems. The better tenor, however, was Herwig Pecoraro as Mime, though his voice is somewhat lyrical for this rather dramatic comprimario part, and though he is lacking the low register for the first half of the first act. Nonetheless, he gave an excellent portrayal, and whenever the melody is not too low, he is a demanding partner for every Siegfried at present, often better to be heard than Gould, for example (let alone the one really terrible singer in this production, voiceless and techniqueless Wanderer Juha Uusitalo).
I wish to thank Helmut Krautschneider for the recordings (Holländer, Nothung 2).
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