Uno Stjernqvist
† 27 Jul 2004
Uno Stjernqvist (nee Karl Uno Stjernqvist) was a Swedish tenor mostly connected with the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm. He was born in the capital of Sweden on 11 December 1928. He studied to become an engineer but his true passion was song and he was singing extensively at private functions, however not as a professional. It was on one such occasion that he was overheard by the tenor and voice teacher Martin Öhman1, in the 1920s Sweden's most prominent tenor internationally. Impressed with Stjernqvist's vocal qualities, Öhman suggested that Stjernqvist would take a singing career seriously. In 1955 he won a singing competition in Stockholm arranged by Skansen and in 1956 he was granted two scholarships, one granted by the city of Stockholm. The same year he enrolled at the Royal Conservatory in Stockholm, where he were to study under Öhman himself and Inga Ekelund-Langefors as well as the notable Swedish baritone Joel Berglund.
In 1957 he made his professional debut at the Royal Opera in Stockholm as Belmonte in the opera "Entführung aus dem Serail" ("Enleveringen ur Seraljen") by Mozart, followed by Count Almaviva in Rossini's the Barber of Seville ("Barberaren i Sevilla") in 1958 and Edgardo in Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor" the same year.
The Royal Opera hired him from 1959 and he remained with the house for 12 years, until 1971, where he excelled in the lyric repertory in roles like Don Ottavio ("Don Giovanni"), the Duke ("Rigoletto"), Alfredo ("La Traviata"), Count Almaviva ("The Barber of Seville") and Edgardo ("Lucia di Lammermoor"), but he was also frequently seen in the lesser known repertory. In 1960 he substituted an indisposed Nicolai Gedda at the Edinburgh Festival in Rigoletto, which remained one of the highlights throughout his career.
Hearing problems and complications after surgery to remedy it truncated his career in the 1970s, but he managed to return to the stage and sang Rhadamés in "Aida" at "Folkoperan" in Stockholm in 1985, moving into the heavier repertory, confirmed by his performances of Calaf in "Turandot" at the same opera three years later.
During his career he also made guest performances at the Sao Carlos in Lisbon, London, Edinburgh, Oslo, Bergen, Copenhagen, Helsingfors, Malmö, Drottningholm (Stockholm) and the already mentioned "Folkoperan" in Stockholm. He was also awarded a series of scholarships and awards, among these the Royal Scholarship of King Gustaf VI Adolf (1960) and a scholarship from the Jussi Björling Memorial Fund in 2003.
After his death in 2004, the Uno Stjernqvist Memorial Fund was established, awarding scholarships to young students of opera, first and foremost tenors.
For a decade Stjernqvist was the prime tenor of the Royal Swedish Opera, filling an important gap in the italian repertoire after the demise of Jussi Björling and the departure of Nicolai Gedda.
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NOTES
- Martin Öhman (1887-1967) was a Swedish tenor, actor and voice teacher. He studied at the Royal Conservatory in Stockholm, Sweden, and in Milan and made his debut in Auber's Fra Diavolo at the Grand Theatre of Gothenburg in 1917. He was a noted performer of the lighter Wagner repertoire and during the 1920s and 1930s he was perhaps Sweden's most famous tenor internationally with celebrated performances at the Met (1924), in Berlin (1925-37) and Stockholm (1927-41). He is often attributed the discovery of Jussi Björling, who became one of Öhman's pupils. Other notable students include Finnish bass Martti Talvela and Swedish tenor Nicolai Gedda. Source: se.wikipedia.org.
| First published: | 4 April 2007 |
| Last modified: | -- |
| Written by: | Joern Anthonisen |
| Page compiled by: | -- |
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