Mark Lundberg

Mark Lundberg (25 March 1958 – 15 August 2008) was an American opera singer who had an active international career from the 1980s up until his sudden death in 2008. He began his career as a bass, then progressed to portraying baritone parts, and finally settled as a dramatic tenor, winning acclaim portraying Wagnerian heroes like Siegfried, Tristan and other standards of the dramatic repertoire. Samson from Saint-Saëns's Samson and Delilah and the title role in Giuseppe Verdi's Otello became "calling cards" for him. Standing at six and a half feet and possessing a big frame and a dark beard, Lundberg made a striking figure on stage. His shoulders measured 6 and a half feet around and the Denver Post once Described as "a big blonde bear of a man", a fitting description for such a large man

Born in Denver, Colorado, Lundberg was the son of an Episcopalian priest and his earliest music experiences were singing in his father's church choir. He studied singing at Indiana University under the great Wagnerian soprano Margaret Harshaw. After spending some time in college, he moved to New York City where he pursued further studies with Maitland Peters.

Two important early successes for Lundberg came in 1988 when he sang in the United States premieres of Richard Strauss's Friedenstag and Krzysztof Penderecki's Die schwarze Maske, both with the Santa Fe Opera. Over the next decade he sang mainly in second tier houses in the United States and Europe, and it wasn't until the early 1990s that his career began to take him to major opera houses around the world. During this time he sang his first Bacchus in Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos with the Opera Nice and later with Lyric Opera of Kansas City in 1995.

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