Episode 287. Meet Hugo Hasslo
SOCIAL SHARE
SUBSCRIPTION PLATFORM
Unless by some miracle you know him already, the Swedish baritone Hugo Hasslo (1911 – 1994), is almost certainly the greatest baritone you never heard of. I discovered him entirely by accident years ago when Tower Records was going out of business and I, like a jackal picking the carcass of an unfortunate water buffalo, grabbed up scads of opera and vocal CDs that other customers / scavengers had passed over. The second that I heard Hasslo’s voice, I knew I had discovered vocal gold. Initially it was the voice that impressed me the most: clarion yet dark-timbred, solid from bass-baritonal low range to an almost Heldentenor-like top (I was later to discover that Hasslo had dabbled in tenor repertoire, going so far as to sing Cavaradossi on stage!) But it was when I discovered a live 1959 recording of Hasslo singing the title role of Rigoletto with his home company, the Royal Swedish Opera, that I encountered his true greatness: here was a Rigoletto that combined the sheer animal power of a Bastianini with the dramatic insight of a Gobbi with an unmatched humanity and compassion for the character. And to think that, with few exceptions, his career, like that of a handful of other Swedish baritones from that era, was based almost entirely in Sweden, and at the Royal Opera, where he sang from 1940 to 1964. Here is a baritone considered by many cognoscenti to be perhaps the finest Swedish baritone that ever lived, a compleat artist, represented however by only a smattering of studio, live, and television recordings, which it is my honor to share with you. Welcome to the Hugo Hasslo Fan Club!
RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE
Jacques Offenbach, Michel Carré, Jules Barbier [after ETA Hoffmann]: Scintille, diamant (Les contes d’Hoffmann) [sung in Swedish]. Hugo Hasslo, Nils Grevillius, Stockholm Radio Orchestra [1946]
Gunnar Wennerberg, arr. David Wikander: Gören portarna höga [Psalm 24]. Hugo Hasslo, Henry Lindroth [1955]
Gaetano Donizetti, Salvadore Cammarano [after Lockroy (né Joseph-Philippe Simon), Edmon Badon]: Bella e di sol vestita (Maria di Rohan). Hugo Hasslo [1938]
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Emanuel Schikaneder: Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja (Die Zauberflöte) [sung in Swedish]. Hugo Hasslo, Herbert Sandberg, Stockholm Royal Orchestra [1944]
Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky [after Alexander Pushkin]: Ach, Herr Onegin, mir scheint, wir sah’n uns früher schon (EugenOnegin). Hugo Hasslo, Sena Jurinac, Wilhelm Schüchter, Sinfonieorchester des NDR [live Hamburg 11.IX.52]
Giuseppe Verdi, Camille du Locle, Joseph Méry [after Friedrich Schiller]: O signor, di Fiandra arrivo (Don Carlos) [sung in Swedish]. Hugo Hasslo, Joel Berglund, Sixten Ehrling, Orchestra of the Swedish Royal Opera [live 1956]
Giuseppe Verdi, Francesco Maria Piave [after Alexandre Dumas]: Cortigiani, vil razza dannata (Rigoletto). Hugo Hasslo, Sixten Ehrling, Orchestra and Chorus of the Royal Opera, Stockholm [live 18.I.59]
Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Adami [after Didier Gold]: Nulla! Silenzio! (Il tabarro) [sung in Swedish]. Hugo Hasslo, Nils Grevillius, Stockholms Filharmoniska Orkester [1956 television production]
Gioachino Rossini, Cesare Sterbini [after Pierre Beaumarchais]: Dunque io son (Il barbiere di Siviglia) [sung in Swedish]. Hugo Hasslo, Birgit Nordin, Ferenc Koltay, Orchestra of the Royal Opera Stockholm [live 1964]
Wilhelm Stenhammar, Bo Bergman: Adagio (Fem sånger av Bo Bergman, Op. 20/5). Hugo Hasslo, Stig Westerberg, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra [live 09.XII.59]
