Admin I Wednesday, Sept. 06, 2023
BERLIN – Renowned opera singer Stephen Gould, a tenor renowned for his performances of works by composer Richard Wagner, has announced that he is seriously ill with an incurable type of cancer.
Gould had been scheduled to sing three major roles at this year’s Richard Wagner Festival in Bayreuth in southern Germany earlier this summer, but cancelled for health reasons.
The United States-born singer announced his retirement several weeks ago.
“I was diagnosed with bile duct cancer with complications. It is Cholangio-Carcinoma, a fatal disease with an outlook of several months to 10 months. There is no cure,” Gould wrote in a statement posted on Wednesday.
The singer wrote that he had waited until after the festival to announce his illness in order to not hinder the outstanding efforts of the festival team.
Gould, who was born in 1962, is one of the most important heroic tenors of recent decades. The Vienna State Opera honoured him with the title of “Österreichischer Kammersänger” (Austrian chamber singer) in 2015.
Gould has become closely associated with the Bayreuth Festival since debuting at the event 19 years ago in the role of Tannhäuser. He quickly became an audience favourite.
He also frequently sang the title male role in Wagner’s opera “Tristan and Iseult,” which is considered particularly challenging.
“I am grateful to Bayreuth, for teaching me all that I could have hoped to know about the performance of this great musician’s works,” Gould wrote in his statement.
