Christoffer Christian Karsten

Christoffer Christian (or Kristofer Kristian) Karsten (9 September 1756 – 6 August 1827) was a Swedish opera singer, sometimes called the greatest male opera singer in Swedish history. He was also the maternal grandfather of the world-famous ballerina Marie Taglioni.

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 .

In 1773 he debuted at the Royal Swedish Opera in Bollhuset with Carl Stenborg and Elisabeth Olin in the famous opera performance Thetis och Phelée and was after this employed at the opera's choir until he performed his first leading role as Adonis in the opera ballet Adonis. He was then sent to study under Potenza in Copenhagen, and when he returned in 1778, he became the greatest male singer in Sweden together with Carl Stenborg until 1806, admired for the beauty of both his voice and his body. In 1781, at his marriage, he was given the villa Canton at Drottningholm, were his family lived until 1870. He was elected into the Royal Swedish Academy of Music and made Hovsångare in 1787 and was given the title royal secretary in 1791.

At his debut 1776 he was given the critic: "At last, the director at the Opera have required a rival to Mr Carl Stenborg in young Karsten, who sang and played very well in Adonis. Even without the clothes and the make up he has a pleasant physionomy, beautiful figure, tall and slim", and was judged as: "An enormous victory for (director) Zibet but a créve-coeur for Mrs Olin, who being forced to act opposite a boy from the choir." 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."

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