Pétur Jónsson

Pétur Jónsson was born in 1884 in Iceland. During studies in Kopenhagen, his voice was discovered. He took a few singing lessons and made his debut in 1911 in Berlin at the Kurfürstenoper. Via Kiel, he went to Darmstadt in 1918 as a replacement for Jozef Mann. There he was at the zenith of his career. His success was due to his strong natural voice and not to his art of singing. His voice deteriorated rapidly. In 1922, he was again in Berlin (Deutsches Opernhaus), and in 1924 moved to Bremen. Past his prime for quite a while, he returned to Iceland in 1929, where he died in 1956.

Source for the picture and biographical notes: Einhard Luther So viel der Helden, Biographie eines Stimmfaches, Teil 3: Wagnertenöre der Kaiserzeit (1871–1918), Berlin 2006