Jussi Björling

Johan Jonatan 'Jussi' Björling was born on February 5, 1911, in Stora Tuna, Borlänge. Touring Scandinavia and the United States as a child in the Björling Male Quartet trained by his father David, he entered the Royal Opera School in Stockholm, making his operatic debut in 1930 at age nineteen.

Björling possessed what critics and colleagues universally described as the most beautiful natural lyric tenor voice of the 20th century—distinguished by a silvery, incandescent timbre, effortless top C's, and aristocratic musicality. Reining as principal tenor at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, his legendary 1950s recordings of La bohème (with Victoria de los Ángeles), Il trovatore, and Aida remain touchstones of vocal art. He died of heart disease at age forty-nine on his island home of Siarö.