NICOLAI GEDDA
Nicolai Gedda, who died on on 8 January, had an illustrious career as an operatic tenor that lasted more than 50 years, during which time he made more than 200 recordings and collaborated with artists including Maria Callas, Georges Prêtre, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Dietrich Fischer- Dieskau and Jessye Norman.
Gedda’s intense, powerful voice, often described as ‘liquid velvet’ came with an innate musicianship that phrased text and music naturally in many languages. His international success as an opera singer emerged from unpromising beginnings in Stockholm: his mother was an unmarried teenage waitress, and his father an unemployed Russian emigré. Destined for a children’s home, he was rescued by his Russian uncle who enrolled him in a Kossak choir in Stockholm.