Nicolai Gedda

Among the era’s most celebrated tenors, Nicolai Gedda amassed an impressive catalog of recordings that spanned both the Romantic and contemporary operatic repertoires along with lighter works in operetta and comic opera. Commanding fluency in seven languages, he earned equal praise for interpretations of roles written in English, French, German, and Russian. Born to a Russian vocalist father whose surname was Ustinoff and a Swedish mother, he adopted his mother’s maiden name for the stage. Gedda received his musical training in Leipzig, where his father served as choirmaster at the Russian Orthodox Church, before the family relocated to Stockholm in 1934. He first sang in the city’s Russian church and, after fulfilling compulsory military duty in 1950, resumed vocal study and captured first prize in the Christine Nilsson Singing Competition. Subsequent training at the Stockholm Conservatory led to his 1952 debut at the Stockholm Opera. That initial appearance brought immediate recognition, prompting an engagement at La Scala in Milan for the 1952–1953 season and concurrent concert engagements. Appearances at the Paris Opera and Covent Garden in London followed in rapid succession. Beginning in 1957 he became a regular and beloved presence at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, where he originated the part of Anatole in Samuel Barber’s Vanessa in 1958. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s he remained most strongly associated with the title role in Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini, which he committed to disc in 1976. His extensive recorded legacy further encompasses The Barber of Seville, The Damnation of Faust, Carmen, La Bohème, Werther, Die Fledermaus, Der Rosenkavalier, Rigoletto, Così fan tutte, and the less frequently heard Hans Pfitzner’s Palestrina, together with such buoyant scores as Franz Lehár’s The Merry Widow, The Land of Smiles, and Paganini.