Opera on the Move in the Nordic Countries during the Long 19th ...

26 Juvas Marianne Liljas
given free entrance now and then to performances at the Théatre Imperial
and the Royal <strong>Opera</strong>. 15
Vienna was where David Björling received his broad musical training. He
studied, among other subjects, piano playing, choral singing (Chorschule)
and Italian. According to the Conservatory’s yearbooks his main subject appears
to have been singing, for which he was graded ‘excellent’ (Vorzüglich).
The Conservatory’s principal teacher in singing, Franz Haböck (1868-1922),
was responsible for the voice training 16 (cf. Liljas 2007, p. 213f).
Haböck was famous for his work on castratos and their art of singing. He
was engaged in research on the Old Italian School of singing during David
Björling’s time at the Conservatory, and was interested in a subject entitled
Die Kastraten und ihre Gesangkunst. His material was published posthumously,
except for a few articles in Die Musik (1908) (Haböck 1923; 1927).
Interestingly, Haböck’s comments about register theory were misunderstood,
allegedly on account of misinterpretations about the castrato pedagogue
Pierfrancesco Tosi and the famous singing school he ran from 1723
(Haböck 1927, p. 87; cf. Stark 1999, pp. 64, 205).
.... and singing career
During the 1910s David Björling tried to establish himself as an opera singer
in Stockholm. His opera debut may have been near: the March 1910 edition
of Thalia, a magazine about music, reports that the newly discovered
tenor David Björling will probably debut as Radamez in Aida. This never
happened: Björling joined Sigrid Eklöf-Trobäck’s opera company instead,
which according to Tegen and Lewenhaupt (1992) was the leading national
opera company in 1908-1918 (Tegen & Lewenhaupt 1992, p. 154).
David Björling was identified as Italian in vocal style. According to reviews
from his singing career his voice was well suited to the Italian opera
repertoire. At the same time he seems to have established an uncommon
natural voice ideal, as reported in Göteborgs- Sjöfarts och Handelstidning,
22/10 1912:
15 […]“Monsieure Björling, jeune suédois doué d’une voix de ténor remarquable,
venant “ d’etere admis au Conservatoir de Vinne, d’esirerait vivement betenir de temps
en temps des entrées gratuites aux représentations du Théatre Imperial et Royal de
l’<strong>Opera</strong>”. Jussi Björling museum archive.
16 Statisticher Bericht über das Konservatorium der Musik und darstellenden Kunst für
das Schuljahr 1907-1908.