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Mikael Gustaf Lennart Samuelson (born 9 March 1951) is a Swedish baritone opera singer, actor, and composer. [1]
Mikael Samuelson has been considered one of the greatest Swedish musical performers and composers, especially for his versions of the songs of Evert Taube and Fred Åkerström.[ citation needed ]
Samuelson was born in Njutånger in Hälsingland, central Sweden. He is the son of the musician and music arranger Bror Samuelson .
Samuelson studied singing, conducting, and violin at Musikhögskolan in the 1970s, and he is a well-known face in the Swedish musical and theatre industry.
During his youth, he performed at Norrlandsoperan and sang the parts of Papageno in The Magic Flute and the title role in The Marriage of Figaro , among others. In the 1980s, he moved to the Royal Swedish Opera and Drottningholms slottsteater in Stockholm, singing the parts of Escamillo in Carmen and Tevje in Fiddler on the Roof .
His breakthrough was playing the part of the Phantom in the Swedish version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera , from 1989-1995. Samuelson sang and portrayed the character for over 2000 performances and received the honourable Swedish theatre Award "Guldmasken" in 1991.
In the early 1990s, he was also known for his role as one of the main characters in the Swedish TV series Rederiet ("High Seas"), a long-running drama show about a shipping company, which conducts passenger traffic on the Baltic Sea between Stockholm and Åbo in Finland. Samuelson played the ship's captain-later-turned C.E.O. Rolf Dahlén, son of the ship's owner, between 1992 and 1994. He left the show in the end of the fifth season, his character being killed off in a car crash.
In the late 1990s, he had major roles in musicals like Cyrano de Bergerac , Cabaret and The Showboat for which he earned prize nominations and good critical receptions. From December 1999 to March 2000, Samuelson sang and performed popular songs and poems written by Lars Forssell, together with the two vocalists Barbro "Lill-Babs" Svensson and Evabritt Strandberg in a show called "Showtime - A Tribute to Lars Forssell".
In 2006, he played Herr Eriksson in the film En liten tiger, and opposite Lena Strömdahl, who had portrayed his wife Yvonne in Rederiet.
In 2007, Samuelson showed his comedic side playing the role as Magnus in the Swedish comedy film Min frus förste älskare ("My Wife's First Lover"), for which he became well-known.
During the spring of 2008, he played the lead role in the Swedish version of Jekyll & Hyde . The musical ended on December 30, 2009.
Samuelson starred in The Göteborg Opera's production of the musical La Cage aux Folles in its run from September 7, 2013 to March 9, 2014. [2]
In his film career, Samuelson is best-known for his role as the Investigator in Håkan Alexandersson 's 1987 thriller movie Res aldrig på enkel biljett ("Never travel on a one-way ticket"). His character searches for the truth in the world, about love, sex, madness and cruelty. His other films include Min frus förste älskare (2006), En liten Tiger, (2006), Aladdin (1992), Kronbruden (1990), Spårvagn till havet (1987), and Kärleken är allt (1986). [1]
In his theatre career, he has played the policeman Rapp in Vilhelm Moberg's comedy Marknadsafton and other plays.
In 1988, he released the album Music of Carl Michael Bellman with recordings of 10 of Fredman's epistles and 3 of Fredman's songs . [3] In 1990, he won the City of Stockholm's Bellman Prize for his interpretations of Sweden's national bard. [4]
In 1996, he released the record "Midvinter" where he sang well-known Christmas songs in his own style, accompanied by cellist Svante Henryson and pianist Lennart Simonsson.
In 1990 he won a Guldmasken Award for Best Leading Actor in Phantom of the Opera . [5]
In 1993, he won the Fred Åkerström prize for his music with guitarist Mats Bergström.
Carl Michael Bellman was a Swedish songwriter, composer, musician, poet, and entertainer. He is a central figure in the Swedish song tradition and remains a powerful influence in Swedish music, as well as in Scandinavian literature, to this day. He has been compared to Shakespeare, Beethoven, Mozart, and Hogarth, but his gift, using elegantly rococo classical references in comic contrast to sordid drinking and prostitution—at once regretted and celebrated in song—is unique.
Sven-Bertil Gunnar Evert Taube was a Swedish singer and actor. Internationally, he was perhaps better known for his acting career. Taube played Henrik Vanger in the film The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and the lead role in Puppet on a Chain.
Solen glimmar blank och trind is Epistle No. 48 in the Swedish poet and performer Carl Michael Bellman's 1790 song collection, Fredman's Epistles. The Epistle is subtitled "Hvaruti afmålas Ulla Winblads hemresa från Hessingen i Mälaren en sommarmorgon 1769". One of his best-known and best-loved works, it depicts an early morning on Lake Mälaren, as the Rococo muse Ulla Winblad sails back home to Stockholm after a night spent partying on the lake. The composition is one of Bellman's two Bacchanalian lake-journeys, along with epistle 25, representing a venture into a social realism style.
Så lunka vi så småningom is a song from the Swedish poet and performer Carl Michael Bellman's 1791 collection, Fredman's Songs, where it is No. 21. The song, written a few months after the death of his son Eli, is addressed to his hosts at a meal. It makes light of death, while presenting it to each person individually, of high or low rank in society. The refrain sings of a pair of gravediggers discussing whether the grave is too deep, taking repeated swigs from a bottle of brandy.
Bröderna fara väl vilse ibland, is a song by the Swedish poet and performer Carl Michael Bellman, from his 1790 collection, Fredman's Epistles, where it is No. 35. The epistle is subtitled "Angående sin Sköna och hännes obeständighet.". The first verse ends "My girl has forgotten me, I'll die faithful. Night and day in drunkenness, shall all my sorrow pass away."
Ack du min moder, originally written Ach! du min Moder, is one of the Swedish poet and performer Carl Michael Bellman's best-known and best-loved songs, from his 1790 collection, Fredman's Epistles, where it is No. 23. The collection is ostensibly of drinking-songs, but they vary in character from laments to pastorales, often simultaneously realistic and elegantly rococo in style. The song has two parts, despairing and celebratory: it begins as a lament, with Jean Fredman lying drunk in a Stockholm gutter outside the Crawl-in tavern, and repeatedly cursing his mother for conceiving him. Then he goes in, is revived by a stiff drink, and repeatedly thanks his mother and father for his life.
Käraste Bröder Systrar och Vänner is Epistle No. 9 in the Swedish poet and performer Carl Michael Bellman's 1790 song collection, Fredman's Epistles. The epistle is subtitled with the dedication "Til Gumman på Thermopolium Boreale och hännes Jungfrur.", Barbara Ekenberg. It describes the fictional Jean Fredman's cheerful world of brandy, women, and dance, in the setting of a tavern which is halfway to a brothel. The song ends with Fredman's credo, a celebration of everything that is delightful in life.
Blåsen nu alla, "All blow now!", is one of the Swedish poet and performer Carl Michael Bellman's best-known and best-loved songs, from his 1790 collection, Fredman's Epistles, where it is No. 25. It is a pastorale, based on François Boucher's rococo 1740 painting Triumph of Venus.
Liksom en Herdinna, högtids klädd, is a song by the Swedish poet and performer Carl Michael Bellman from his 1790 collection, Fredman's Epistles, where it is No. 80. The Epistle is subtitled "Angående Ulla Winblads Lustresa til Första Torpet, utom Kattrumps Tullen". It is a pastorale, starting with a near-paraphrase of Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux's French guide to the construction of pastoral verse. That doesn't prevent the supposed shepherd and shepherdess from falling into bed drunk at the end of the song. It has been described as lovelier in Swedish than in Boileau's original French. The epistle's humorous depiction of the human condition has been praised by critics.
Käre bröder, så låtom oss supa i frid is Epistle No. 5 in the Swedish poet and performer Carl Michael Bellman's 1790 song collection, Fredman's Epistles. The epistle is subtitled "Til the trogne Bröder på Terra Nova i Gaffelgränden.". The first epistle to be written, it introduces Jean Fredman's fictional world of ragged drunken men in Stockholm's taverns, making music, drinking, and preaching the message of the apostles of brandy, in the style of St Paul's epistles. The composition's approach is simple compared to later epistles, retaining much of the character of a drinking song.
Gråt Fader Berg och spela is No. 12 in the Swedish poet and performer Carl Michael Bellman's 1790 song collection, Fredman's Epistles. The epistle is subtitled "Elegi över Slagsmålet på Gröna Lund". It is a lament over a pub brawl, caused by Fredman's drinking a soldier's beer and dancing with someone else's girlfriend. Set to the melody from the aria "The flocks shall leave the mountains" in George Frideric Handel's opera Acis and Galatea, it is the best-known of his poems describing the consequences of brandy-drinking. Bellman used the contrast between the romantic associations of the melody and the brutal reality of heavy drinking to humorous effect.
Stolta stad! is Epistle No. 33 in the Swedish poet and performer Carl Michael Bellman's 1790 song collection, Fredman's Epistles. One of his best-known works, it combines both spoken and sung sections. In the spoken sections, Bellman, as composer and as performer, imitates a whole crowd of people of many descriptions. It has been described as Swedish literature's most congenial portrait of the country's capital city, Stockholm.
Movitz blåste en konsert is epistle No. 51 in the Swedish poet and performer Carl Michael Bellman's 1790 song collection, Fredman's Epistles. The epistle is subtitled "Angående konserten på Tre Byttor", naming a restaurant in Stockholm's Djurgården park. It was written after Bellman had become a court musician to the new King Gustav III in 1773. The melody was borrowed from George Frideric Handel's 1718 opera, Acis and Galatea.
Tjenare Mollberg, hur är det fatt? is No. 45 in the Swedish poet and performer Carl Michael Bellman's 1790 song collection, Fredman's Epistles. The epistle is subtitled "Till fader Mollberg rörande hans harpa, och tillika et slags ad notitiam at Mollberg led oskyldigt på Krogen Rostock" ; the song is sometimes known under this name. It describes a fight in a tavern that starts when Mollberg innocently plays a Polska on his harp, leading his audience to assume it was propaganda for Poland.
Opp Amaryllis! is one of the Swedish poet and performer Carl Michael Bellman's songs from his 1791 collection, Fredman's Songs, where it is No. 31. The song is a graceful pastorale in rococo style, involving a sleeping nymph who is invited to come fishing upon the sea's stormy wave. In reality, the nymph is a Swedish woman, Wilhelmina Norman, the stormy wave is a Swedish waterway, and the progression from shore to fishing-boat can equally well be read as a seduction. It is one of Bellman's best-known and best-loved songs, and has been recorded by musicians including Folke Andersson and Edvard Andreasson.
Fader Bergström, stäm upp och klinga is one of the Swedish poet and performer Carl Michael Bellman's songs, from his 1790 collection, Fredman's Epistles, where it is No. 63. The melody is based on a minuet by Carl Envallsson. Bergström was a musician, and the song celebrates dancing and drinking late into the evening. The song, written in 1773, was revised heavily to make it suitable for publication. The initial version, naming Movitz not Bergström as the musician, was an attack on an over-zealous priest who had caused Bellman to be summonsed for an earlier poem that had joked about salvation. The song has been recorded by Bellman interpreters including Fred Åkerström, Fredrik Berg, and Rolf Leanderson.
Nå skruva fiolen is Epistle No. 2 in the Swedish poet and performer Carl Michael Bellman's 1790 song collection, Fredman's Epistles. The epistle is subtitled "Till fader Berg, rörande fiolen". It is both about and mimicking the rhythm of playing the violin. The scholar Lars Lönnroth comments that Bellman used the resemblance of a cello to a woman's body, certainly pretending to play it as such for laughs, while the use of words like "screw" in the lyrics was similarly explicitly obscene. The Bellman interpreter Fred Åkerström recorded the song on his 1974 album Glimmande nymf.
Kära Syster is No. 24 in the Swedish poet and performer Carl Michael Bellman's 1790 song collection, Fredman's Epistles. The epistle is subtitled "Till kära mor på Bruna Dörren" ; its themes are drinking and death. One of his best-known works, it is set to a tune extensively modified from one by Egidio Duni for Louis Anseaume's 1766 song-play La Clochette. Bellman's biographer, Carina Burman, calls it a central epistle.
Bellman. Biografin is a 2019 biography of the Swedish 18th-century songwriter and performer Carl Michael Bellman by the novelist and biographer Carina Burman. Bellman is a leading figure in Swedish song, known especially for his song collections Fredman's Epistles and Fredman's Songs.
Värm mer Öl och Bröd is epistle No. 43 in the Swedish poet and performer Carl Michael Bellman's 1790 song collection, Fredman's Epistles. The epistle, dated 14 November 1771, is subtitled "Till Ulla Winblad, skrifven vid et ömt tilfälle". The source of the melody has not been traced.
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