Ivar Frithiof Andresen (27 July 1896 – 6 November 1940) was a Norwegian

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

singer who pursued a successful international career in Europe and the United States. Andresen was the first Norwegian to perform 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 oper ...

in New York CityMetOpera database
/ref> (preceding his famous compatriot, the great

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 ...

ian soprano

Kirsten Flagstad Kirsten Malfrid Flagstad (12 July 1895 – 7 December 1962) was a Norwegian opera singer, who was the outstanding Wagnerian soprano of her era. Her triumphant debut in New York on 2 February 1935 is one of the legends of opera. Giulio Gatti-Casa ...

, by five years). A bass, he appeared in operas composed by Wagner, Mozart and

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 ...

Biography

Andresen was born in

Kristiania Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

. After making his debut in Stockholm in 1919, he worked at ' (now ', or Royal Swedish Opera), from 1921 to 1926. He then performed at the

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

Semperoper The Semperoper () is the opera house of the Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden (Saxon State Opera) and the concert hall of the Staatskapelle Dresden (Saxon State Orchestra). It is also home to the Semperoper Ballett. The building is located on the ...

(in 1926–1931) and the Städtische Oper Berlin (1931–1935), and also appeared as a guest artist at the New York Met (1930–1932) and the Bayreuth Festival (1927–1936). In England, he sang at the

Royal Opera House The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. It is the home of The Royal Ope ...

, Covent Garden, in 1928–1931 and at the

Glyndebourne Festival Glyndebourne Festival Opera is an annual opera festival held at Glyndebourne, an English country house near Lewes, in East Sussex, England. History Under the supervision of the Christie family, the festival has been held annually since 1934, e ...

in 1935. Andresen's singing earned considerable critical acclaim during his appearances in England, America and Germany, but developing health problems would curtail his career, and he died at the age of 44, in Stockholm, during the early stages of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. He left, however, a sizeable legacy of 78-rpm gramophone recordings made in the 1920s and 1930s, which have been re-issued on

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then released in Oc ...

. Today, in Norway, Andresen is probably best known not for being an opera star, but for adorning the box of the cough-drop brand "IFA", produced by the

Nidar Nidar is a Norwegian producer and distributor of confectionery. Nidar's candy factory is located in Trondheim, Norway. It is part of the Orkla Group. The company is one of the leading distributor of sweets to the Norwegian marketplace, sellin ...

company. Since the 1930s, his face has been seen on the package, along with a quote recommending the product to "singers, public speakers, smokers and athletes". Ivar F. Andresen was also the great uncle to Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and former Norwegian prime minister

Jens Stoltenberg Jens Stoltenberg (born 16 March 1959) is a Norwegian politician who has been serving as the 13th secretary general of NATO since 2014. A member of the Norwegian Labour Party, he previously served as the 34th prime minister of Norway from 2000 to ...

Recordings on CD

''Lebendige Vergangenheit – Ivar Andrésen'' *Arias by Jacques Halévy, Giacomo Meyerbeer, Mozart, Giuseppe Verdi, and Richard Wagner

Preiser Records Preiser Records is an independent Austrian record label. It was founded in 1952 by Otto G. Preiser (1920–1996). The label is particularly important for recordings from the Viennese cabaret scene, especially from the 1950s and 1960s (Helmut Qua ...

CD PSR 89028 ''Lebendige Vergangenheit – Ivar Andrésen Vol 2'' *Arias and Lieder by Meyerbeer, Richard Wagner,

Carl Loewe Johann Carl Gottfried Loewe (; 30 November 1796 – 20 April 1869), usually called Carl Loewe (sometimes seen as Karl Loewe), was a German composer, tenor singer and conductor. In his lifetime, his songs ("Balladen") were well enough known for s ...

, Richard Strauss, and

Ludwig Fischer Ludwig Fischer (16 April 1905 – 8 March 1947) was a German Nazi Party lawyer, politician and a convicted war criminal who was executed for war crimes. Background Born into a Catholic family in Kaiserslautern, Fischer joined the Nazi Pa ...

Preiser Records CD PSR 89125

References

Sources

* Rosenthal, Harold and John Warrack. (1979, 2nd ed.).
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera
'. London, New York and Melbourne: Oxford University Press. p. 12. . * Sadie, Stanley and Christina Bashford. (1992).
The New Grove Dictionary of Opera
'. London: Macmillan Publishers Ltd. Vol. 1, p. 129. . * Sadie, Stanley and John Tyrrell. (2001).
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
'. London: Macmillan Publishers Ltd. Vol. 1, p. 630. .

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Andresen, Ivar F. 1896 births 1940 deaths 20th-century Norwegian male opera singers Operatic basses