Gösta Winbergh (30 December 1943 – 18 March 2002) was a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

tenor A tenor is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The lo ...

Early life

Winbergh was born in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

. There was no musical tradition in Winbergh's family. He himself was a

building engineer A building engineer is recognised as being expert in the use of technology for the design, construction, assessment and maintenance of the built environment. Commercial Building Engineers are concerned with the planning, design, construction, op ...

when he watched his first opera performance in 1967; the experience so moved him that he decided on an operatic career. Accordingly, he applied for the opera class at Sweden's

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is the oldest conservatoire in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the first Duke of ...

. He trained at the school between 1969-71. He began singing at the Royal Opera in Stockholm, and gradually began to receive international attention in the 1980s when he guest performed on stages abroad. Copenhagen, Aix-en-Provence, San Francisco and in 1980, Glyndebourne, where he sang Belmonte. He later worked several times at the opera house in

Zürich Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...

and at the

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is operat ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, singing

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...

's ''Don Giovanni'',

Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

's ''Lohengrin'',

Verdi Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the h ...

's ''Rigoletto'' and

Puccini Giacomo Puccini (Lucca, 22 December 1858Bruxelles, 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he was descended from a long lin ...

's ''Turandot''.

Career

For the first two-thirds of his 30-year career, Gösta Winbergh specialized in Mozart's operas. He played Don Ottavio in ''

Don Giovanni ''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; Vienna (1788) title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanis ...

'' at the Met, at the Salzburg Festival, in Houston and Chicago, Berlin and Barcelona. He sang Ferrando in ''Cosi fan tutte'' at the Drottninghom Court Theatre and Tamino in ''The Magic Flute'' for his debut at La Scala, Milan. Other Mozart roles in his repertory were Idomeneo, Mitridate and Titus. He also sang lyric roles such as Almaviva in ''Il barbiere di Siviglia'', the Duke in ''Rigoletto'', Alfredo in ''La traviata'', Nemorino in ''L'elisir d'amore'' and Lenski in ''Eugene Onegin''. Then in 1991 at Zurich he sang his first Lohengrin, and moved on to other heavier roles such as the Emperor in ''Die Frau ohne Schatten'', Don Jose in ''Carmen'' and Florestan in ''Fidelio''. In 1982, Winbergh made his Chicago debut as Ferrando, and his Covent Garden debut in the title role of ''La Clemenza di Tito''. The following year he sang the title role of ''Mitridate, re di Ponto'' at the

Schwetzingen Festival The Schwetzingen Festival (German: Schwetzinger Festspiele, now Schwetzinger SWR Festspiele) is an early summer festival of opera and other classical music presented each year from May to early June in Schwetzingen, Germany. In 1952, the broadca ...

, and made his Metropolitan debut as Don Ottavio. In 1984, he sang Tamino in Salzburg and Ferrando at Drottningholm, as well as Admetus in Gluck's ''Alceste'' in Geneva. In 1985, he performed as a soloist in Mozart's ''Coronation Mass'' at the Vatican for the Pope. He made his debut at La Scala in 1985 as well, singing Tamino, and returned there in 1990 for the title role of Idomeneo, repeating the role at Madrid the following year.

Personal life

Winbergh married Elena, and had a son and a daughter with her. His son, Gunnar, is best known for playing The Black Falcon in the 2006 film Flyboys.

Death

Winbergh suffered a heart attack and died in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

in 2002,Gösta Winbergh's obituary
– The Guardian where he was performing ''Fidelio'' at the time. To honor his memory and opera work, ''The Gösta Winbergh Award (GWA)'' was instituted in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

after his death; the award is each year handed out to young aspiring tenors through an arranged singing contest that takes place at the opera stage

Confidencen Confidencen, or Ulriksdal Palace Theatre ( sv, Ulriksdals slottsteater), is a theatre in the park of Ulriksdal Palace in Solna, in the Swedish capital Stockholm. Built in the 1750s and restored from the late 20th century, it is the oldest Rococo t ...

, at the Ulriksdal Royal Estate (a few miles outside

). The first prize consists of 14.000 Euro ($15,355 in American dollars) and the second prize of 6.000 Euro ($6,580 in American dollars).

References

External links

*
Singing Mozart (YouTube)

The Prize Song from MEISTERSINGER (YouTube)

by Bruce Duffie, November 3, 1982 & February 25, 1999 {{DEFAULTSORT:Winbergh, Gosta Swedish operatic tenors Litteris et Artibus recipients Singers from Stockholm 1943 births 2002 deaths Österreichischer Kammersänger 20th-century Swedish male opera singers Royal College of Music, Stockholm alumni