[7] Harry Gustaf Nikolai Gädda, who later changed the spelling of his surname to Gedda, was born out of wedlock in Stockholm to a Swedish mother and a half-Russian father.

[1] One day he told a customer – a member of the Royal Opera House Orchestra – that he was searching for a good singing teacher, and the client recommended Carl Martin Öhman,[9] a well known Wagnerian tenor from the 1920s, who is also credited with discovering Jussi Björling.

[1] Gedda made his debut at the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm as part of the vocal quartet in the premiere of Der rote Stiefel by Sutermeister in November 1951.

[10] In April 1952, at the age of 26, Gedda made his triumphant debut in a principal role in Stockholm, performing Chapelou in Adolphe Adam's Le postillon de Lonjumeau, alongside Hjördis Schymberg.

Naturally I was interested, but I did not expect either the front page stories that appeared next morning or the mass of letters and almost incessant telephone calls asking to be heard.

I asked him to come back at 8 that evening and sent word to my wife that a great singer had fallen into my lap and to Dobrowen that, believe it or not, this 23-year-old Gedda was the heaven-sent Dmitry for our Boris.

[11]As a result of the audition with Legge, Gedda was contracted for three HMV opera recordings – Boris Godunov, Die Lustige Witwe and Das Land des Lächelns – as well as the B minor mass by Bach and a Swedish song recital accompanied by Bendix.

[9] In Salzburg, he took part in the August 1957 premiere of the three-act version of Rolf Liebermann's Die Schule der Frauen (as Oronte), conducted by George Szell, where Gedda "matched his free lyric tenor with an animation of personality that came as a surprise".

He returned in 1963 for La damnation de Faust and for Benvenuto Cellini (in 1966, 1969 and 1976); Alfredo in 1972, Gustavus III in 1977, Nemorino in 1981, Lensky (in 1979 and 1982) and Abdisu in Palestrina.

[17] Gedda's only foray in Wagner was the title role in Lohengrin in Stockholm in January 1966, where one critic wrote that his "command of intonation and rhythm contributed to an overwhelmingly beautiful impression right from his unaccompanied appearance in the first act".

[9] Gedda made more than 200 complete LP and CD recordings over a wide variety of styles[1] and several of the roles may be considered among the most challenging in the entire operatic repertoire, notably Arnold in Rossini's Guillaume Tell and Arturo in I puritani, both requiring high notes and an easy legato line.

[22] His discography includes large-scale sacred works such as the Mozart Requiem, Beethoven's Christ on the Mount of Olives, Missa solemnis and Ninth Symphony, Lélio, ou le retour à la vie, Elijah, the Verdi Requiem and The Dream of Gerontius; while his song repertoire extended beyond Swedish composers and folksongs to Schubert, Schumann, a wide range of Russian romances from Glinka to Rachmaninoff, mélodies, Janáček's The Diary of One Who Disappeared, and many Russian folksongs.

[23] Outside music Gedda had many hobbies, as a keen sportsman, a connoisseur of painting and sculpture, and well-read in literature, often reading works of major novelists in the original where he commanded the language.