MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Gösta Winbergh sings Richard Strauss

Gosta Winbergh was born in Stockholm. There was no musical tradition in Winbergh's family. He himself was a building engineer when he watched his first opera performance in 1967; the experience so moved him that he decided on an operatic career. Accordingly, he applied for the opera class at Sweden's Royal Academy of Music. He trained at the school between 1969-71. He began singing at the Royal Opera in Stockholm, and gradually began to receive international attention in the 1980s when he guest performed on stages abroad. Copenhagen, Aix-en-Provence, San Francisco and in 1980, Glyndebourne, where he sang Belmonte. He later worked several times at the opera house in Zürich and at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, singing Mozart's Don Giovanni, Wagner's Lohengrin, Verdi's Rigoletto and Puccini's Turandot.