Stefán Íslandi

He was born into a poor working-class family in northern Iceland. His father drowned when Stefán was 10 years old, whereupon he was placed with foster parents. After his voice broke, it developed into a lovely tenor that became locally well-known. When he sang at a private reception, a ship owner from Reykjavik heard him, and convinced him to move to the capital city for vocal studies.

So in 1926, he went to Reykjavik, where he worked, among other jobs, as a barber apprentice and took voice lessons. In 1929, he became a choir soloist, plus he sang in cinemas and on the radio. The owner of Kveldúlfur, Iceland's largest shipping and fishing company, sponsored his further vocal studies in Milano, with Ernesto Caronna (1929–33).

Since Guðmundsson was unpronounceable for Italians, he adopted the name Íslandi for his 1933 debut in Florence as Cavaradossi. He had good success in Italy, but left in 1935 because of healthy reservations about the Fascist regime.

For the next few years, he sang a lot in Iceland and on tour (also abroad) with a male choir from Reykjavik; he made guest appearances in Germany, Sweden and Hungary, and in 1938 in Copenhagen (as Pinkerton). This was where he would spend most of his career – he stayed in Copenhagen, partly as a regular guest and partly as a member of the troupe, until 1964. From 1940 to 1949, he was married to Danish contralto Else Brems.

He also returned regularly to Iceland to appear both in concert (including a US-and-Canada tour with "his" Reykjavik choir in 1946), and in opera; at the inauguration of the new Reykjavik opera house in 1951, he sang Duca. In the 1950s and 1960s, his performances were sporadic due to ill health.

He moved back to Iceland in 1966 and taught voice.

Reference 1, reference 2: Kutsch & Riemens