Childhood
Jussi Björling was born
in 1911 in Borlänge in
the Swedish province of
Dalarna, 220 km NW of
Stockholm. His father
David was a tenor and
singing teacher and
trained the voices of
his children from an
early age. Already in
1915, his three oldest
children, the boys Olle,
Jussi and Gösta, made
their first public
performance in a church.
They toured extensively
with their father in
Sweden and 1919-1921
also in the US, where
six recordings were made
in 1920.
Opera debut
In
1928, Jussi began his
studies at the Stockholm
Conservatory and in
August 1930, he could
make his official debut
at the Royal Opera in
Stockholm in Mozart's
opera Don Giovanni.
Already in 1929, he had
begun to make recordings
as a tenor, and in 1930
he made his first opera
recordings.
Breakthrough
In
1931, Jussi Björling had
a breakthrough outside
Sweden with a recital at
the Copenhagen Tivoli.
He continued to sing at
the Stockholm Opera
(e.g. Guillaume Tell &
Barbiere di Siviglia
1931, Rigoletto & Elisir
d'amore 1932, Traviata,
Roméo et Juliette &
Tosca 1933) and made
many recordings in
Swedish, mostly of
popular and operetta
songs. He even recorded
dance music under the
pseudonym "Erik Odde".
Jussi Björling's success
steadily increased at
the Opera in Stockholm,
where he took on many
new roles (e.g. Ballo in
maschera, Faust, Bohème
& Fanciulla del West
1934, Cavalleria
rusticana, Aida &
Trovatore 1935,
Pagliacci & Madama
Butterfly 1936).
A world career
begins
In
1936, he made his first
tour to Central Europe,
and had great success in
opera and recital in
Czechoslovakia and
Vienna. This brought him
his first international
record contract, and he
began to record opera
and songs in the
original language. One
of his first
international recordings
was "Celeste Aida".
In
1937, besides singing
opera in Stockholm,
Jussi made a longer tour
to Germany, Austria,
Hungary and
Czechoslovakia in the
spring. In the autumn,
after having given his
first recital in London,
he went on to the United
States for a tour which
included radio concerts,
recitals and his
American opera debut in
Chicago. In Sweden, his
great popularity was
demonstrated for
instance at his regular
open-air recitals at
Skansen and Gröna Lund
in Stockholm.
Debut at the Metropolitan
Opera
In
the autumn of 1938,
Jussi Björling went back
to the United States and
had his debut at the
Metropolitan Opera in
November (Bohème). He
would then return to
that opera house as a
leading tenor almost
every year, with an
exception for the late
war years.
Jussi Björling sang in
two operettas in
Stockholm (Fledermaus
1935, Zigeunerbaron
1938), and he made
famous recordings of
operetta songs, among
them one of his
favourite encores "Ich
hab' kein Geld".
In
1939, Jussi Björling's
permanent contract with
the Royal Opera in
Stockholm expired, but
he often returned to
that opera house as a
guest during his whole
career. He made his
opera debut in London in
May (Trovatore), and a
little later he gave a
radio concert in the
Netherlands, from which
the excerpt from the
Carmen aria is taken.
In August, he sang for
the first time under
Arturo Toscanini, when
Verdi's Requiem was
performed in Lucerne in
Switzerland. Another of
the soloists was the
Swedish mezzo Kerstin
Thorborg, who is seen
with him on the film
clip.
Continued success in America
In
the autumn of 1940,
Jussi Björling made his
opera debut in San
Francisco (Bohème), sang
two concerts in New York
under Toscanini (Verdi's
Requiem & Beethoven's
Missa Solemnis) and
opened the Metropolitan
Opera season for the
first time, as King
Gustavus III of Sweden
in Verdi's Ballo in
maschera. In the spring,
he had made his first
recordings in the USA,
where he demonstrated
his ability as a lieder
singer in several
Schubert songs.
In Europe during World War
II
After he had come back
to Sweden in the spring
of 1941, Jussi Björling
remained in Europe and
mostly in his native
country for the rest of
the World War. His most
important appearance
abroad was his Italian
opera debut in Florence
(Trovatore) in the
spring of 1943. He
toured extensively in
Sweden, partly as a
field artist, and
appeared many times on
Swedish radio.
Back to the USA
In
October 1945, Jussi
Björling returned to the
USA after the war for an
8-month tour, and in the
next years he spent a
large part of the year
in America, singing in
opera and concert.
However, much of the
summer was always spent
in Sweden, at his summer
home on Siarö in the
Stockholm archipelago.
In August 1946, he sang
for the first time with
the La Scala ensemble in
Milan (Rigoletto at
Sports Palace), and in
May/June 1951 a second
time (Ballo in
maschera). Beginning in
1947, he often had his
wife Anna-Lisa, an opera
singer whom he had
married in 1935, as
partner in concert and a
few times also in opera.
In 1949, Jussi took on a
new role, Des Grieux in
Puccini's Manon Lescaut,
and the next year
another one, the title
role in Verdi's Don
Carlo, which opened the
season of the Met. The
first of his many
recitals at Royal Albert
Hall in London took
place in 1951. In 1950,
he began a series of
opera recordings in New
York, of which the
"Pearlfishers duet" with
Robert Merrill, recorded
1951, is certain to be
the most famous one.
First complete opera
recording
In
the spring of 1952,
Jussi Björling made the
first of what would
eventually become 12
complete opera and
oratorio recordings,
Verdi's Il Trovatore.
South Africa
In
1953, Jussi Björling
once more opened the
Metropolitan season,
this time in Faust, but
this was followed by a
period with voice
problems caused by
laryngitis. Jussi
Björling's only
appearances outside
Europe and America took
place in the autumn of
1954, when he made a
concert tour to South
Africa. In 1955, he sang
for the first time at
the Lyric Theatre (later
Lyric Opera) of Chicago,
to which company he
later often returned.
Puccini's Bohème was an
opera which Jussi
performed much more than
any other work in his
repertoire, and the
complete recording which
was made in New York in
the spring of 1956 is
one of the most famous
opera recordings of all
time.
The last years
During the last years of
his life, Jussi Björling
continued to sing much
in the USA, though he
was absent from the Met
between April 1957 and
November 1959. He began
to suffer from heart
problems, but still had
a hectic schedule. In
March 1960, he sang his
last performance at the
Royal Opera in Stockholm
(Trovatore), and later
in the same month
returned to the Covent
Garden Opera in London
for the first time since
1939 (Bohème). His very
last opera performance
took place in San
Francisco with the
Cosmopolitan Opera
ensemble on 1 April 1960
(Faust), and his last
recital at Skansen in
Stockholm on 20 August.
Early in the morning of
9 September, Jussi
Björling died in his
sleep at his summer home
on Siarö.
Recordings from the last
months of Jussi's life
demonstrate that his
voice and artistry were
not influenced by his
illness. It happened
that the last commercial
recording he made, in
June 1960, was Verdi's
Requiem.
