CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · People & Ideas

Jonas Brunvoll Jr.

opera singer (1920-1982)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 6, 2025
Entity authorityQ16009932 ↗
Source-derived summary

Jonas Brunvoll (3 August 1920 – 6 April 1982) was a Norwegian opera singer and actor.

Personal life

Brunvoll was born in Bærum; the son of Jonas Brunvoll and Kirsten Sørsdal, and was a brother of Gunnar Brunvoll.

During the Occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany he was involved in civil resistance. He was first arrested in October 1941, and held at Bredtveit Prison for a short period. He was then arrested in January 1942 and held at Møllergata 19 until 4 March, when he was incarcerated at Grini until 20 March, and then transferred to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Germany. In the memoir book 3 fra Sachsenhausen fellow prisoner and newspaper editor Olav Larssen recalls cultural activities in the camp, and mentions that Brunvoll would sing in such a way that prisoners forgot their surroundings, both at Grini and Sachsenhausen. His parents were also sent to German concentration camps, his mother to Ravensbrück and Auschwitz, and his father to Sachsenhausen.

Career

Brunvoll made his debut as opera singer in 1941 as Colline in La Boheme at Trøndelag Teater. His debut concert in 1949 was attended by the Prime Minister of Norway, Einar Gerhardsen (and his wife) and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Halvard Lange. Both Gerhardsen and Lange were fellow prisoners from Sachsenhausen.

Editorial summary

“Jonas Brunvoll Jr.” enters the record as opera singer (1920-1982). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Jonas, Brunvoll and opera can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1920, 1982, 1941, 1942—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1920-08-03. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Jonas, Brunvoll and opera.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Jonas Brunvoll Jr.” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Jonas, Brunvoll and opera provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 6, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q16009932. VIAF identifies the subject as 171486396. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1920, 1982, 1941 and 1942.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Jonas Brunvoll Jr.”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Jonas Brunvoll Jr. primary sources, Jonas Brunvoll Jr. archive and Jonas research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Jonas Brunvoll Jr.”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Jonas Brunvoll Jr.” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.