Christoffer Christian Karsten

Christoffer Christian (or Kristofer Kristian) Karsten (9 September 1756 – 6 August 1827) was a Swedish opera singer.

Born in Ystad, he was discovered by queen Louisa Ulrika of Prussia in 1771, when he sang for her on her way to her visit to Berlin, and so impressed her that she gave him the opportunity to study singing in Stockholm.

He was a student of Potenza in Copenhagen, and when he returned in 1778, he became the perhaps most successful male singer in Sweden together with Carl Stenborg until 1806, admired for the beauty of both his voice and his body.

At his debut 1776 he was given the critic: Karsten and Stenborg was the male stars of the Gustavian age in Sweden, and complemented each other well, as they had different ways of acting: "When Karsten with his strong, sonorous, all-dominating voice shooked the entire nervous system of the listeners, delighted them and commanded admiration, the soft, sensitive, melodious tones of Stenborg penetrated the heart and filled the eyes with sympathetic tears".

When the Royal Swedish opera was (temporarily) closed in 1806, he was forced to retire with the rest of the staff.