Helge Lindberg

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Helge Igor Lindberg (1887–1928) was a Finnish opera singer and sculptor who became a popular concert performer across Europe in the 1920s. He first studied violin in Helsinki, then trained as a singer in Munich (1907) and finished his studies in Florence.

He sang works by Bach, Handel, and the Finnish composer Yrjö Kilpinen. Lindberg spent much of his life in Vienna, settling there in 1919. He was known for his strong, athletic presence and his advanced breathing technique, as well as a carefully studied performing style. He enjoyed both traditional music and modern composers like Schoenberg, and he earned a medal from the King of Sweden for his singing.

As a sculptor, he made a 12-inch wooden self-portrait as a satyr (1927), a sitting Buddha, a crucified Christ, and a black stone bust of his second wife (which was lost in Buenos Aires after her death).

He died of pneumonia in Vienna in 1928, and his ashes were buried on a small Finnish island he had bought as a summer retreat. He was survived by his first wife Erna, his second wife Friederike (Fritzi) of the Seven Viennese Singing Sisters, and his sons Kim, Lars, and Dian. A biography of his life was written by Kosti Vehanen in 1929. Some of his recordings, such as Frohsinn und Schwermut (Handel), Wie glänzt der helle Mond (Wolf), and Der Wanderer (Schubert), have been preserved, with several digitized by the Finnish National Library in its Raita collection. In 1916 the Bauhaus artist Johannes Itten painted a portrait of him.