Bengt Rundgren

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Bengt Erik Rundgren ( April 21, 1931 in Karlskrona - September 27, 2008 in Vallentuna ) was a Swedish opera singer with a bass voice . He sang in Bayreuth, Berlin, Geneva, Hamburg, London, Milan, Naples, New York, Savonlinna, Stockholm, Washington, Vienna and Zurich. He was appointed Kungliga Hovsångare (royal court singer) by the Swedish king and chamber singer in Hamburg .

Life, work

Bengt Erik Rundgren began his singing career relatively late; he was only accepted as a student at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm at the age of 29 . Before that he had not completed any musical training and worked as a blacksmith.

He made his debut in Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Royal Opera in Stockholm in 1962 , was permanently engaged at this house for seven seasons and then returned regularly as a guest. From 1965 to 1967 he sang Osmin every year in the Drottningholm Palace Theater . In 1969 he became a member of the ensemble at the Deutsche Oper in West Berlin, where he stayed for almost thirty years and where he was able to present the full range of his repertoire.

His deep bass was particularly popular for Verdi and Wagner roles, including the three Mozart roles Osmin, Komtur and Sarastro. But he also took on a number of roles in Russian operas, for example the pimen in Boris Godunow .

His guest appearances extended to all of Europe and North America. In 1969 he made his debut in three small roles at the Bayreuth Festival - as helmsman in Tristan and Isolde , as night watchman and second knight of the grail. In the following year he was also entrusted with the Fafner in Rheingold and Siegfried , his future showcase role. With the ensemble of the Deutsche Oper he made a guest appearance at the Edinburgh International Festival in 1971 (again as Osmin). He also performed at the Savonlinna Opera Festival in Finland.

In October 1971 he was invited to the Vienna State Opera for the first time as Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte . He sang the role in Vienna up to 1986 a total of 24 times; he also took on eleven other roles at the Vienna Opera, mostly in Wagner operas. The total number of his appearances in Vienna is 77.

In 1972 he was appointed Hunding in Die Walküre at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, and the following year he was appointed King Marke in Tristan and Isolde to the Chorégies d'Orange . This was followed by debuts on two important stages as Hagen in der Götterdämmerung : 1973 at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London and 1974 under the conductor of Rafael Kubelík at the Metropolitan Opera of New York, where he also played Fasolt and Hunding until April 1975.

In 1974 there were also guest appearances in Chicago and Geneva. In 1976 he was engaged by Pierre Boulez and Patrice Chéreau for the Ring of the Century at the Bayreuth Festival - as Fafner in the premiere cast and as Hagen in the second cast (alternating with Karl Ridderbusch ).

In 1977 he made his debut as Daland at the Teatro Regio in Turin. At the Moscow Bolshoi Theater he appeared in roles in Russian and Italian opera literature as well as in Wagner roles. He also sang Fafner in the late 1970s and early 1980s at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino at the Teatro Comunale in Florence, in 1981 in the new Rheingold production in Vienna , in 1989 in Siegfried in Washington, 1996 and 1998 in Helsinki.

Another role for which his voice was predestined, the Grand Inquisitor in Verdi's Don Carlos , took him to numerous opera houses in Europe, including Naples and Vienna in 1976, Scala in Milan in 1977 , back to Stockholm in 1999 and Umeå in 2001.

Bengt Rundgren was appointed Swedish court singer in 1983. He was buried in the Leksand cemetery.

Roles (selection)

Beethoven :

  • Rocco and Don Fernando in the Fidelio

Donizetti :

Meyerbeer :

Mozart :

Mussorgsky :

Richard Strauss :

Tchaikovsky :

 

Verdi :

Wagner :

records

There are around 25 complete opera recordings with Bengt Rundgren on CD or DVD, including complete versions of his roles as Komtur and Sparafucile. The following were documented on video or film:

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bengt Erik Rundgren. In: FinnGraven.se. Retrieved July 1, 2020 (se).
  2. ^ International Who's Who in Music and Musicians' Directory. Retrieved July 1, 2020.
personal data
SURNAME Rundgren, Bengt
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rundgren, Bengt Erik
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish opera singer (bass)
DATE OF BIRTH April 21, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH Karlskrona
DATE OF DEATH September 27, 2008
Place of death Vallentuna