Jussi Björling embarked on the path to becoming a tenor of renown from a prodigiously young age. He was born in Stora Tuna, Sweden, on 2nd February 1911. His father Karl David Björling was an operatic tenor, who had appeared at the Metropolitan Opera in New York at the turn of the century as Rodolfo in La bohème. His mother was a professional pianist, perhaps so suggesting that the advantages of an upbringing in an intensely musical family are immeasurable. 

At the age of five, Björling started taking singing lessons with his father and a year later, together with his father and two brothers, toured internationally in the Björling Male Voice Quartet. It was during one of these tours that the brothers made their first recordings in America in 1920.

Throughout his formative years, Björling continued to receive thorough musical training and in 1928 entered the conservatory in Stockholm studying with Joseph Hislop and John Forsell. In 1930 he became a member of the Royal Swedish Opera where he made his debut as Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni. Björling was invited to Copenhagen at the Tivoli Gardens for a concert on 29th July 1931. Afterwards, the Danish critics unanimously agreed that they had witnessed a sensational talent, a world-class voice. In the years that followed, Björling would return to Tivoli each summer for a series of concerts.

The young tenor embarked upon his career in a very ambitious way. He made 616 appearances at the Royal Opera in Stockholm in a wide variety of roles, including Count Almaviva (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Duke of Mantua (Rigoletto), Wilhelm Meister (Mignon), Alfredo Germont (La traviata), Lenski (Eugene Onegin) and Vladimir (Prince Igor). While at Stockholm, Björling made several tours with the Royal Opera between 1931 and 1935, appearing in Copenhagen, Oslo and Riga.

Björling’s first major appearance outside Scandinavia was in 1935 when he performed as Radamès (Aida) at the Vienna State Opera in a cast which included Gina Cigna as Aida and Kerstin Thorborg as Amneris with Victor de Sabata conducting. The following year, he sang in Prague and again in Vienna. Between 1937 and 1940 he made successful debuts in Chicago, New York, London and San Francisco. On 16th November 1937, he made his first appearance in Britain at the Queen’s Hall in London. Two months later, he made his American debut as the Duke in Rigoletto in Chicago. The following year he sang in the Verdi Requiem at the Lucerne Festival under Toscanini. 

On 24th November 1938, at the age of 27, he made his Met debut as Rodolfo in La bohème in a cast that included Mafalda Favero. During the next 21 years, Björling was to sing regularly at the Met. When America entered the Second World War, Björling returned to Sweden making his first post-war appearance at the Met on 29th November 1945 in Rigoletto with Leonard Warren and Bidu Sayão. The operas he sang at the Met include La bohème, Rigoletto, Il trovatore, Cavalleria rusticana, Un Ballo in Maschera, Faust, Tosca, Roméo et Juliette, Manon Lescaut and Don Carlo. He appeared with Zinka Milanov, Jarmila Novotná, Sayão, Victoria de los Ángeles, Robert Merrill, Cesare Siepi and Ettore Bastianini.

Björling made his Covent Garden debut on 12th May 1939 during the Grand Opera Season in which Ezio Pinza sang as Don Giovanni, Lauritz Melchior as Tristan and Eva Turner as Turandot. He appeared at La Scala in 1946 as the Duke in Rigoletto and later again in 1951 as Riccardo in Un Ballo in Maschera with Maria Caniglia, Cloe Elmo and Paolo Silveri. 

By the time Björling was in his mid-30s, he was at the height of his powers and in great demand in the opera house and as a concert artiste. He was now firmly established as an outstanding lyric-dramatic tenor of his generation. 

Adding more prestigious venues to his touring schedule, he appeared with the San Francisco Opera and also sang at New Orleans and Chicago. It was in Chicago in November 1955 that Björling and Maria Callas appeared together in two performances of Il trovatore. Callas considered him to be the greatest Manrico she had ever heard. 

During the autumn of 1959, a series of minor heart attacks were reminders of the growing illness which was shortly to prove fatal. In November and December, Björling was back at the Met for the last time in Faust, Tosca and Cavalleria rusticana. In March 1960 he appeared at Covent Garden in La bohème. In spite of his failing health, he continued singing. He recorded the tenor part in the Verdi Requiem in June 1960 under Fritz Reiner, after which a few concerts followed. During the night of 9th September whilst asleep at his summer house on Siaro, he suffered a fatal heart attack which cut short his life at 49 years of age.

Jussi Björling died at the height of his career. For a long time, he had been acknowledged as one of the outstanding singers of the century. He remained unspoiled by the public’s adulation and by the social and economic position he had attained. He was synonymous with humility towards his art and his fellow men.

Some of the singers who partnered him have paid rich tributes. One such was by de los Ángeles: “It was in 1951 when I went back to New York to make my debut at the Met Opera as Marguerite in Faust. At the day of the first rehearsal as I came out of the lift towards the rehearsal room, I suddenly heard a tenor voice starting ‘Salut! Demeure’. I was completely overwhelmed by the very special sound of that voice. His singing was so full of sincerity and authenticity that I felt I had known him always. Silently I cried. A few moments later I found myself standing in front of that voice: Jussi Björling. Immediately a current of contact and understanding was established between us which was going to last until the day he left us. In our performances together, the greater joy for me was to hear his sound around me… I would stay around behind the wings, when in most cases I should have been back in my dressing room getting ready for the next scene. His singing remains unequalled to me and no recording will every convey the unforgettable experience that was to hear him onstage.”  

Even so, he did leave behind a great number of his recordings which hold pride of place in the record-collecting world. At the Stuart-Liff Collection, we have approximately 15 of his LPs which include a mix of opera and song. 

His wife, Swedish opera singer and actress Anna-Lisa Björling, made no secret of the tenor’s personal struggles. She said of him in his biography which she co-authored with Andrew Farkas: “An immensely gifted singer, a conscientious artist, a loving husband and a father and a kind and good man caught up in a lifelong struggle with a disease—alcoholism—that he could contain at times but was unable to conquer.”