Nils G. Svanfeldt

Swedish opera and concert singer (baritone) and arranger, born 30 May 1880 in Uppsala, died there 14 September 1959. At the age of fourteen, he graduated as an organist in Strängnäs. After matriculating in Uppsala in 1899, he studied singing with John Forsell and piano with Hilda Thegerström and then continued his studies in Berlin and Paris. In his younger years, Svanfeldt devoted himself mainly to opera and was involved in German stages, such as the Volksoper in Vienna, the Krolloper in Berlin and the opera stages in Graz, Bremen and Leipzig. He also guest starred at other German stages. In Sweden, Svanfeldt was engaged in 1922–1923 at the Stora teatern in Gothenburg and gave guest performances at the Royal Theatre. From 1936 he lived in Sigtuna. Among Svanfeldt's roles are Mozart's Almaviva, Papageno and Don Juan, Verdi's Rigoletto, Count Luna in The Troubadour and Iago in Otello as well as the title role in The Flying Dutchman, Gunther and Albrerich in The Ring of the Nibelungen and Beckmesser in The Masters of Nuremberg. He also gave concerts in Berlin, Munich, London, Copenhagen and Oslo. In Sweden, Svanfeldt gave a number of concerts, of which about sixty together with Wilhelm Stenhammar. He enjoyed interpreting Schubert and Brahms songs. Svanfeldt made his main contribution in recent years as a knowledgeable and enthusiastic promoter of the art of folk music. He held folk song studies on the radio, at Skansen, in Stockholm's civic school and in folk education associations, and published Sång-och visbok (1936), which contained around 300 folk songs, systematically arranged according to their content. He was also active as an accompanist and worked as a singing teacher (1925–1927 at the Opera School).