Nicolai Gedda, 91; was celebrated opera tenor . By Margalit Fox New
York Times . Nicolai Gedda, a Swedish singer who rose from an
impoverished childhood and a youthful career as a bank clerk to become
one of the most celebrated tenors of the 20th century, died of a heart
attack on Jan. 8 in his home in Tolochenaz, Switzerland. He was 91.
Widely admired for his sensitive musicianship, masterly tonal control,
and impeccable diction in a spate of European languages, Mr. Gedda
possessed a lyric tenor voice that shimmered like silver but was no
less warm for that. He was one of the most versatile, and
professionally long-lived, tenors of his era, with many dozens of roles
to his name in a career that lasted until he was well into his 70s - a
good two decades past a classical singer's customary retirement age.
Mr. Gedda was ubiquitous on recordings and in the world's foremost
opera houses and concert halls, including La Scala in Milan and Covent
Garden in London. Over a quarter-century, he sang 367 performances with
the Metropolitan Opera, from his debut in the title role of Gounod's
"Faust" in 1957 to his final performance, as Alfredo in Verdi's "La
Traviata," in 1983. The fluid lightness of Mr. Gedda's voice made him
especially well suited to the French repertoire: His roles included Des
Grieux in Massenet's "Manon," Hoffmann in Offenbach's "Les Contes
d'Hoffmann," Roméo in Gounod's "Roméo et Juliette" and the title role
in Berlioz's "Benvenuto Cellini. Among his Italian roles were Nemorino
in Donizetti's "L'Elisir d'Amore," Ernesto in his "Don Pasquale" and
Edgardo in his "Lucia di Lammermoor," as well as the Duke of Mantua in
"Rigoletto," Alfredo in "La Traviata" and Riccardo in "Un Ballo in
Maschera," all by Verdi. But the role for which Mr. Gedda was very
likely most famous was Russian: Lensky, the young poet in Tchaikovsky's
"Eugene Onegin. Reviewing Gedda in a concert performance of "Onegin"
with the Boston Symphony in 1976, Richard Dyer wrote in The Boston
Globe: "The tenor's voicing of Lensky's aria - an ideal union of
responsiveness to word and musical line, a demonstration of vocal and
technical mastery and varied and beautiful tone, and an expression of
wise and generous human feeling - was a classic demonstration of why,
for some of us at least, operatic singing is the highest achievement of
human art. Mr. Gedda's prowess in a Russian opera is perhaps
unsurprising in light of the fact that Russian, along with Swedish, was
his native language: He was abandoned as a child by one Russian father
and reared by another. After finishing high school, Mr. Gedda took a
job as a bank clerk in Stockholm, earning extra money as a wedding
singer. Through a customer at the bank, he was introduced to the tenor
Carl Martin Ohman, who had been a mentor of the renowned Swedish tenor
Jussi Bjorling. Mr. Gedda began lessons with Ohman and later studied at
what is now the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. He made his La
Scala debut as Don Ottavio in Mozart's "Don Giovanni" in 1953. The next
year he sang Faust at the Paris Opera and the Duke of Mantua at Covent
Garden. Mr. Gedda made his United States debut in 1957, singing Faust
with the Pittsburgh Opera. Reviewing his Met debut, in the same role
later that year, under the baton of Jean Morel, Howard Taubman wrote in
The New York Times: "His carriage is tall and straight and his movement
buoyant. It is credible that he will attract Marguerite. Even more
impressive than his appearance is the intelligence of his singing.
