Göran Gentele

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title: "Göran Gentele" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1917-births", "1972-deaths", "metropolitan-opera-people", "male-actors-from-stockholm", "swedish-opera-managers", "road-incident-deaths-in-italy", "swedish-film-directors", "20th-century-swedish-male-actors"] description: "Swedish actor, director and opera manager" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Göran_Gentele" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Swedish actor, director and opera manager ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox officeholder"]

Field	Value
name	Göran Gentele
birth_date	29 September 1917
birth_place	Stockholm, Sweden
death_date	18 July 1972 (aged 54)
death_place	Olbia, Sardegna, Italy
image	Mattiwilda-Dobbs-142777633403.jpg
caption	Gentele (left) with Mattiwilda Dobbs and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, 1966
occupation	Opera impresario, actor, director
order
::

| name = Göran Gentele | birth_name = | birth_date = 29 September 1917 | birth_place = Stockholm, Sweden | death_date = 18 July 1972 (aged 54) | death_place = Olbia, Sardegna, Italy | image = Mattiwilda-Dobbs-142777633403.jpg | caption = Gentele (left) with Mattiwilda Dobbs and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, 1966 | occupation = Opera impresario, actor, director | education = | spouse = | order = | office =General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera | term_start =1972| term_end =1972| appointed = | predecessor =Rudolf Bing | successor = Schuyler Chapin Göran Gentele (29 September 1917 – 18 July 1972) was a Swedish actor, director, and opera manager. He was director of the Royal Swedish Opera from 1963 to 1972 and briefly the general manager of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City in 1972, until his death in a road accident.

Biography

Born in Stockholm, Gentele studied from 1944 until 1946 at the Royal Dramatic Training Academy, beginning a brief career as a film actor not long afterwards. He soon turned to directing, working for a time at the Royal Dramatic Theatre and then at the Royal Swedish Opera, where his more notable productions included Gian Carlo Menotti's The Consul and Karl-Birger Blomdahl's Aniara. He became director of the Royal Swedish Opera in 1963.

He also directed films during approximately the same period (1947 to 1969), making at least 15 feature films and television movies. His 1951 film Leva på 'Hoppet' was awarded the Silver Bear for comedy at the Berlin International Film Festival.

He succeeded Sir Rudolf Bing as director of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City in 1972. Soon after assuming the post, on 18 July 1972, Gentele died in a car crash while on vacation in Sardinia; he was killed along with two of his daughters when the car in which they were riding collided head-on with a truck. A third daughter was injured, as was Gentele's wife, Marit. Schuyler Chapin, Gentele's assistant, was named acting director almost at once.

Legacy

Despite the fact that he had been in office only a few weeks at his death, several of Gentele's plans for the company were implemented under Chapin. The most notable of these was a new production of Georges Bizet's Carmen designed for Marilyn Horne; this was used to open the 1972–1973 season. Gentele was the second general director of the Metropolitan, behind Herbert Witherspoon in 1935, to die before the opening night of his first season as general manager of the company.

Awards

Gentele won the Silver Bear (Comedies) award at the 1st Berlin International Film Festival for his film Leva på 'Hoppet'.

References

References

1. "Gentele, Head of Met, Dies With 2 Children in Crash; Was Bing's Successor -Wife and 3d Daughter Injured in Sardinia Goeran Gentele, Director of Met, Dies in Auto Crash". The New York Times.
2. (December 21, 1970). "New Manager for the Met". [[Time magazine]].
3. IMDB: [https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0313022/?ref_=nmbio_bio_nm Filmography], Accessed April 29, 2016
4. "1st Berlin International Film Festival: Prize Winners". berlinale.de.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::