Nicolai Gedda
I wish to thank Vladimir Efimenko for the picture.
I would like to thank Daniele Godor for the picture (Tamino). I would like to thank Helmut Krautschneider for the recording (Sonnambula). I would like to thank Vladimir Efimenko for the recording (Zhizn za tsarja). I would like to thank Thomas Silverbörg for the recordings (Roméo et Juliette, Vespri siciliani). Gedda's mother was Swedish, his father half Russian, half Swedish, but the two never lived together; Gedda was adopted and raised by his father's sister, whose husband was again Russian (Mikhail Ustinov, a basso at the Don Kossack choir). Since Ustinov sang at a Russian-Orthodox church in Leipzig from 1928 to 1934, Gedda spent those childhood years in Germany, which is why he was equally fluent in Swedish, Russian and German. His voice was discovered while he worked for a bank; he studied with Carl Martin Öhman and with his adoptive father in Stockholm, where he started his career at the Royal Opera House in 1952. His success was immediate and global; in 1953, he was already at La Scala, in Torino and Rome, in 1954 at the Paris Opéra, Covent Garden and the Aix-en-Provence Festival, in 1957 at the Salzburg Festival and the Metropolitan Opera, in 1962 at the Vienna Staatsoper. He also sang in Chicago, San Francisco, and at the Bolshoj (1980), among many other places. He also did a lot of concert work, and made a plethora of recordings. He sang very long; way too long, to be precise (until 2001!). I only heard him on stage in his late years, and would have preferred not to. Reference 1: Kutsch & Riemens, reference 2 Le postillon de Lonjumeau – Stockholm, Opera, 8 April 1952 Der Rosenkavalier – Stockholm. Opera, 1952 Les contes d'Hoffmann (Nicklausse) – Stockholm, Opera, Fall 1952 Der Bettelstudent – Stockholm, Opera, 1952 La damnation de Faust – Paris, concert, 1953 Orphée – Aix-en-Provence, Festival, 1953 Don Giovanni – Milano, Scala, 28 January 1953 Trionfo di Afrodite – Milano, Scala, 14 February 1953 Les Indes galantes (Damon) – Paris, Opéra, 11 January 1954 Carmen – Wien, concert, 1954 Rigoletto – London, Covent Garden, January or February or May 1954 (shared the role with Oreste Kirkop who sang the first night) Oberon – Paris, Opéra, 12 February 1954 Mireille – Aix-en-Provence, Festival, 1954 Die Entführung aus dem Serail – Aix-en-Provence, Festival, 1954 Die Zauberflöte – Paris, Opéra. 22 December 1954 Les pêcheurs de perles – Paris, Opéra-Comique, during his stay in Paris between 1954-1957 Così fan tutte – Aix-en-Provence, Festival, 1955 Platée – Aix-en-Provence. Festival, 1956 La traviata – Paris, Opéra, 1956 Iphigénie en Tauride – Köln, WDR, 1956 Idomeneo – Stockholm, Opera, 10 January 1957 Faust – Monte Carlo, Garnier, 1957 Otello (Cassio) – Paris, Opéra, 1957 Armide – Bordeaux, GT, 1957 Die Schule der Frauen – Salzburg, Festival, 17 August 1957 Vanessa – New York, Met, 15 January 1958 Les contes d'Hoffmann – New York, Met, 31 October 1958 Evgenij Onegin – New York, Met, 13 December 1958 Manon – New York, Met, 28 October 1959 Der Zigeunerbaron – New York, Met, 25 November 1959 Alceste – New York, Met, 6 December 1960 Boris Godunov – New York, Met, 9 December 1960 Madama Butterfly – New York, Met, 18 January 1961 L'elisir d'amore – New York, Met, 28 January 1961 Benvenuto Cellini – Amsterdam, 16 June 1961 Die lustige Witwe – New York, concert, 1962 The last savage – New York, Met, 23 January 1964 La sonnambula – New York, Met, 21 February 1963 I puritani – New York, concert, 1963 La dame blanche – Amsterdam, concert, 1964 Pélléas et Mélisande – Stockholm, Radio, 1964 Il matrimonio segreto – Wien, ORF, 1964 Tosca – Stockholm, Opera, 1964 La bohème – Stockholm, Opera, 1964 Werther – New York, concert, 1965 Un ballo in maschera – Wien, Staatsoper, 1965 Das Land des Lächelns – Wien, Volksoper, 1965 Lohengrin – Stockholm, Opera, 1966 Orfeo (composer: Haydn) – Wien, Theater an der Wien, 1967 Roméo et Juliette – New York, Met, 6 April 1968 Fra Diavolo – San Francisco, War Memorial, 26 November 1968 Lucia di Lammermoor – New York, Met, 1 February 1969 Les Troyens – Roma, RAI, 11 December 1969 Le prophète – Torino, RAI, 8 September 1970 Les huguenots – Wien, concert, 1971 Guillaume Tell – Firenze, Comunale, 16 May 1972 Pikovaja dama – New York, Met, 27 December 1972 Les pêcheurs de perles – New York, Carnegie Hall, 1974 I vespri siciliani – New York, Met, 31 January 1974 Dalibor – New York, Carnegie Hall, 1977 The bartered bride – New York, Met, 25 October 1978 Don Pasquale – New York, Met, 7 December 1978 Lakmé – New York, Carnegie Hall, 1981 Iolanta – Washington DC, Opera, 1982 War and peace – Paris, concert, 1987 Candide – London, concert, 1989 Gustaf Wasas saga (composer: Hallén) – Stockholm, Opera, 16 October 1991 Mazeppa – Stockholm, concert, 1992 Palestrina (Abdisu) – London, Covent Garden, 28 January 1997 Reference: Nicolai Gedda Mein Leben – Meine Kunst, Parthas Verlag, Berlin, 1998; English edition: Amadeus Press, Portland (Or), 1999 |
