Gregory Kunde A life worth singing

Gregory Kunde’s story is more than just another account of a personal determination to succeed. In the course of a long professional life spanning over forty years, this American tenor has displayed a remarkable capacity for surmounting obstacles that destiny has placed in his path, from the life-threatening illness that put his life in check, to a crisis with his voice that nearly brought his career to an untimely end before the age of fifty. Far from giving up the struggle and accepting his fate, he went into battle and won; Kunde is today one of the most respected performers of lyric opera worldwide, with commitments in prestigious opera-houses in cities such as London and Vienna, Barcelona, Rome and Berlin.

This biography traces his personal and professional life from his beginnings in the small town of Kankakee (Illinois), through his years training as a promising young singer at the Chicago Opera where he studied with Alfredo Kraus, to his bold leap across to Europe, where he made his name first as a singer of Rossini and bel canto, and in the last decade on tour astounding critics and audiences as a leading exponent of Verdi. Kunde is today’s Otello.

Quoting his own words and those of people who played a vital role in his career, the narrative travels to opera-houses in cities all over Europe, following his footsteps as an artist, but also allowing the singer himself to voice bittersweet reflexions on the world of opera to which he has dedicated his life with passion and commitment from the very first day.