| Birth Date: | 3 September 1924 |
| Birth Place: | Vänersborg |
| Death Date: | 3 November 2009 |
| Instrument: | bass-baritone |
| Genre: | opera |
Carl Erik Sædén (3 September 1924, in Vänersborg – 3 November 2009), was a Swedish bass-baritone whose career was principally centred on Stockholm, both on the operatic stage as well as the concert platform. He made a few recordings and appeared in the 1975 Bergman film of The magic flute.[1] [2]
Sædén studied at the Kungliga Musikhögskolan in Stockholm from 1943–52, his teachers there including Arne Sunnegårdh, Martin Öhman and Wilhelm Freund. He received degrees in higher cantor and organist degree from the Royal College of Music in 1946, and a degree in vocal teaching 1952. Having joined the choir of Engelbrekt Church in 1944 (where he later sang in the St Matthew Passion), Saedén studied in Rome in 1952 and at the Salzburg Mozarteum in 1952, 1954 and 1955.
In 1965, he became a member of the Stockholm Music Academy, and in 1966 a Swedish hovsångare (court singer by special appointment). From 1957 to 1983 he was a singing teacher at the Royal College of Music, Stockholm. In 1974 he received the medal of Litteris et artibus. At the same time, he worked as a teacher at the Royal Music Academy in Stockholm.
Sædén first appeared at the Royal Opera in Stockholm in 1952 and was a member of the company until 1981.[1] Among over 100 roles which he sang were the Count (Le Nozze di Figaro), Beckmesser, Wolfram (Tannhäuser), Scarpia, Jochanaan, Golaud, Pimen, Wozzeck (Swedish premiere, 1957) and Nick Shadow in The Rake's Progress (Swedish premiere, 1961).
He created roles in several opera premieres:
title role in Gilgamesj (Stockholm, 1952)
Mimaroben in Aniara (1959)
Don Felix in Hus med dubbel ingång
Saint Phar in The Queen of Golconda, (1968, centennial premiere)
title role in Ulisse (Deutsche Oper, Berlin, 1968)
Nekrotzar in Le Grand Macabre (1978)
Appearances outside Sweden included Bayreuth (Kurwenal in Tristan und Isolde, Herald in Lohengrin and Donner in Rheingold), the Edinburgh Festival in 1959 and 1974), Savonlinna in 1989 (Henrik in Singoalla by Gunnar de Frumerie), Hamburg, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden (1960, 1981), Montreal (1967), Moscow, Munich and Oslo.