On Sibelius’ birthday, Jussi Björling sings five of the composer’s songs, as part of a memorial concert at Carnegie Hall on December 8, 1957. The composer died only weeks earlier at the age of 91.
Also on the program was Sibelius’ bleakest symphony, the Symphony No. 4, “En Saga,” and “Finlandia.” Sadly, the guest conductor of the New York Philharmonic, Martti Similä – a close friend of Sibelius, who held posts as chief conductor with the both the Helsinki and Lahti Symphony Orchestras – died not long after, on January 9. This concert was his American debut – and presumably swan song.
Sibelius had been very fond of Björling’s renditions. After a concert in Helsinki in 1951, he invited the tenor to his home, where he presented him with an inscribed photo. Sibelius wrote, “To the genius, the great singer Jussi Björling.”
During the course of our discussion of “The Devil Rides Out,” last night on Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner, Roy and I touched upon the fact that Christopher Lee’s great regret in life was not pursuing a career as a professional opera singer.
In his autobiography, “Tall, Dark and Gruesome” (later reissued as “Lord of Misrule”), Lee talks about how, whenever he was Sweden, he would make it a point, in his downtime, to slip off with amateur opera companies and tour with them incognito. He filmed “Tales of Hans Christian Andersen” in Sweden, and for a time he was engaged to Henriette von Rosen. His Swedish connections were such that when Von Rosen’s father threw up a final impediment, that he would allow Lee to marry his daughter only if he could obtain permission from the King of Sweden, Lee was able to so – like something out of a fairy tale in itself!
Ultimately, Lee did not marry Von Rosen (the situation seemed very high-maintenance), but he did attract the attention of tenor Jussi Björling. He recounts the story, as well as his family history in the opera, in one of the videos linked below.
First, here’s Lee in an off-the-cuff demonstration of his singing ability, with selections from “The Flying Dutchman” and “The Damnation of Faust;” and then, to keep it seasonal, he recites Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven”:
Much later, he shares an anecdote and proves that he’s still got the pipes:
Finally, Lee recounts his experience with Björling and his family’s role in bringing opera to Australia:
Of course, as he points out, if he had, after all, become a professional opera singer, his career would have ended decades earlier. But as an actor, he was able to continue to do what he loved until the end of his long and fruitful life.
Really, when you think about, is there all that much difference between gothic horror and a life in the opera?
Christopher Lee, who died on Sunday – but whose passing was only just announced today (in order to allow time for the notification of family) – was a lifelong opera lover. In fact, in his autobiography, “Lord of Misrule” (previously released as “Tall, Dark and Gruesome”), he relates how he relished a stint in Scandinavia early in his career, since it gave him the opportunity to steal away with a regional opera company.
On the recommendation of Jussi Björling, he auditioned for the Swedish Opera, and was accepted, but unfortunately he could not afford the training.
He liked to claim his singing talent was genetic. His great grandparents founded the first opera company in Australia.
In recent years, he stated his one regret in life was that he had not pursued singing professionally. But then he added philosophically that if he had, he most certainly would have had to give it up years ago, whereas as an actor, he just kept right on going.
Opportunities to hear Lee employ his singing voice in film are sadly rare. Here’s a clip from 1970:
All right, I may have bitten off more than I can chew with this Advent calendar!
All I want to do is write about La Befana, the Christmas witch, and those maddening Icelandic Yule Lads, but now I’ve basically got a little over 24 hours to write my scripts, do my production work and complete my Christmas shopping, which I haven’t even begun (the joy of getting paid by invoice).
I’m actually writing this while I’m on hold, trying to order a gift after somebody’s website failed to process my order. That’s what I get for trying to buy directly from the company, as opposed to Amazon. Now I’m tied in, since I’m not sure if my card went through. No good deed goes unpunished, even at Christmastime.
At least my cat is entertained by “Eine kleine Nachtmusik” as it blares tinnily over my speaker phone. I think I need to cool down with a good, Swedish snowball fight.
