Nicolai Gedda
Nicolai Gedda has died yesterday in Switzerland, aged 91. His family has confirmed the death which is more than important, since in May 2015 rumours said, Gedda, one of the greatest tenor of the XXth Century had died on Saturday, 16 May. Wikipedia pages in several languages mentioned his death. Two days later, the death references and dates were removed from those pages.
The tenor’s exceptionally long and successful career did end in the nineties. His father took the adopted son to the Cossac choir rehearsals and to a Russian Orthodox Church services, yet Gedda’s voice was not trained and he initially worked in a bank. A rich client paid for his studies with tenor Karl Martin Oehmann at the Stockholm Conservatory.
Gedda made his debut in April 1952 at the Stockholm Opera in Adam’s ‘Postillon de Longjumeau’. The young singer then was largely promoted by Herbert von Karajan. In 1953 he was contracted by La Scala but became also a close collaborator of the Paris opera becoming a leading interpreter of the French repertoire.
Gedda’s mastery of nine languages enable him to sing a great number of lyrical roles all over the world.
Update:
Frank Cadenhead from ForumOpera.com draws our attention to this stunning fact: « His death was not Feb 8 but Jan 8. I just saw the date and assumed it was yesterday. I cannot understand why family and associates would have withheld this information for a month. Extraordinary. »
