Royal Swedish Opera Archives Vol. 1 – Il Trovatore

During the season of 1956–57, Jussi Björling made 14 guest performances in five different operas at the Royal Opera House in Stockholm where he made his debut 25 years earlier and where he often returned. On 26 January 1957 Verdi’s Il Trovatore was on the program with Jussi as Manrico, the Norwegian world soprano Aase Nordmo as his beloved Leonora, the famous Wagner singer Margareta Bergström as his supposed mother, the gipsy Azucena and the brilliant Verdi baritone Hugo Hasslo as Count Luna, the troubadour’s rival. Herbert Sandberg had hastily stepped in as conductor instead of Kurt Bendix, and Jussi’s brother Gösta, who died the same autumn, stepped in for a sick colleague as Manrico’s armor-bearer.

Radio broadcasts from the Opera have been made since the 1930s but comparatively few have been kept for posterity. Since 1956 Valter Valentin, a member of the board of the Opera had started to record certain performances with simple equipment from the stalls in the first row. This particular night in January, a member of the Opera choir had placed a tape recorder in the wings at the request of the mezzo-soprano Margaret Bergström in whose linen cupboard the tape was stored for a number of years. Until some time in the 1980s when Stefan Johansson, who is now head dramaturgist at the Opera, borrowed it for a radio program. Probably, the singer wanted it to listen to her own achievement, without thinking that it would become a world sensation 45 years later.

Because the first scene is missing on this recording of Il Trovatore there has been room for a generous bonus, Jussi Björling in all the des Grieux solos as well as the final scene with Hjördis Schymberg in Puccini’s Manon Lescaut – a recording made on 1 November 1959. This was one of Jussi’s last performances at the Opera and was also broadcast on the radio. But it is one of Valter Valentin’s recordings from the first row, giving a unique rendition of the sound of Jussi’s voice, from a very close range. It is also remarkable to be able to present the great tenor aria “Donna non vidi mai” from the first act – the corresponding part in the recording made by the radio was actually damaged when being copied – whereas here, we can hear it recorded from another perspective.

These sensational recordings of a mature Jussi Björling in fantastic shape make up the first volume in a series with the title Royal Swedish Opera Archives. In eight volumes, the Royal Opera and Caprice presents some of the most exciting of these “house recordings” made by Valter Valentin and his colleagues during the years 1956–60 with soloists such as Jussi Björling, Hjördis Schymberg, Birgit Nilsson, Sigurd Björling, Kerstin Meyer and many others.