It is very sad to read of the death of the American tenor Stephen Gould. Earlier in the summer, he had been diagnosed with bile duct cancer, and his demise was swift.
Born in 1962 in Virginia, Mr. Gould graduated from Olivet Nazarene University with a Bachelor of Arts in 1984.
He first made a name for himself in music theatre, singing some 3,000 performances in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical, PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. Turning to opera, he developed into a formidable heldentenor.
Among his signature Wagnerian roles were Siegfried, Tristan, Tannhäuser, and Parsifal; he also took on the arduous roles of Florestan, the Emperor in FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN, Bacchus, and Otello.
Mr. Gould performed at the major opera houses of the world, including the the Wiener Staatsoper, the Bayreuth Festival, Bayerische Staatsoper, Teatro Massimo di Palermo, Berlin State Opera, and the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma.
I first heard Stephen Gould on a radio broadcast of Wagner's RING Cycle from the 2006 Bayreuth Festival. He was truly impressive, and his was the outstanding performance in the Cycle, conducted by Christian Thielemann.
Finally, in November 2019, I had the chance to experience Mr. Gould's singing live, when the National Symphony Orchestra offered a concert performance of Act II of TRISTAN UND ISOLDE under the baton of Gianandrea Noseda at Devid Geffen Hall. This was my reaction:
"Veteran heldentenor Stephen Gould, now 57 years old and with years of singing opera's most demanding tenor parts behind him, displayed a voice of prodigious power and tonal steadiness. He knows Tristan's music so well, and he lives it fully. While his clarion singing rang amply thru the hall, he also has the tenderness of expression for "O sink hernieder, nacht der liebe..." And as the act moves towards its devastating ending, Mr. Gould's magnificent singing of the moving passage "Wohin nun Tristan scheidet,willst du, Isold', ihm folgen?" ("Where Tristan now shall go, will you, Isolde, follow?") carried us to that exalted place where a great Wagnerian singer can take us."
My friends who were at that performance with me were equally thrilled by Mr. Gould's performance, and in the ensuing years his name would come up when we spoke of great performances we had witnessed. It speaks volumes when a singer can make such a memorable impression in a concert setting of single act of an opera.
Listen to Stephen Gould in the final minutes of Act II of TRISTAN UND ISOLDE here.
~ Ruhe jetzt, geliebter Held.