Attractive original photograph of the Swedish bass-baritone

Bust-length portrait by the noted Swedish photographer Benkow, Stockholm. Ca. 239 x 179 mm. With photographer's signature in white ink to lower left corner of recto and handstamped to verso.

Minor abrasion and annotations to verso. Berglund "made his début at the Stockholm Royal Opera in 1929 as Monterone (Rigoletto) and continued to sing there for the next 30 years. In 1942 he sang the Dutchman at Bayreuth and in 1946 he made his Metropolitan début as Hans Sachs. Best known as a Wagner singer - his repertory also included Wotan, Kurwenal and Gurnemanz - he sang many other roles in French, Italian and German operas, among them Méphistophélès, Athanaël (Thaïs), Mozart's Figaro, Boccanegra, Philip II, Scarpia and John the Baptist (Salome). From 1949 to 1956 he was director of the Stockholm Opera. A fine actor and a versatile singer, he could portray the warm-hearted magnanimity of Hans Sachs or the sardonic diabolism of Méphistophélès with equal facility." Elizabeth Forbes in Grove Music Online.