Birgit Nilsson

Birgit Nilsson’s singing ability first drew notice through her participation in a local church choir. Voice instruction began under Ragnar Blennow in Bastad before continuing at the Royal Music Academy Stockholm under Joseph Hislop and Arne Sunnegärdh. Her operatic entrance occurred in Stockholm, where Agatha in Der Freischütz marked her initial major assignment, followed in 1947 by the role of Lady Macbeth in Verdi’s Macbeth at the same house. The first significant international engagement arrived in 1951 when she portrayed Elettra in Mozart’s Idomeneo at the Glyndebourne Festival. The next year she assumed Donna Anna in Don Giovanni during the Florence season. Wagner roles gained prominence in 1953 at Stockholm with Elisabeth in Tannhäuser and her initial Isolde. The ensuing year brought a Bayreuth debut as Elsa in Lohengrin together with Ortlinde in Die Walküre; subsequent appearances there featured Isolde and Brunnhilde. During the 1954-1955 Munich season she undertook her first complete Brunnhilde in Der Ring des Nibelungen and simultaneously delivered her first Salome. In 1957 she performed the full Ring cycle in London. At the Vienna State Opera her portrayals encompassed Elsa, Sieglinde, Elisabeth, Aida, and Sent. Also in 1957 she sang Leonore in Beethoven’s Fidelio, and the following season she added her first Turandot. Critics particularly valued her accounts of Elektra and the Barak’s Wife in Die Frau ohne Schatten. Additional Italian parts included Tosca, Amelia in Un ballo in maschera, and Aida. Appearances took her to every leading opera venue worldwide—Tokyo, Paris, Buenos Aires, Chicago, San Francisco, and Hamburg—while she also performed Turandot in Moscow with the Teatro alla Scala company. At age 62 a Metropolitan Opera House performance of Strauss’s Elektra was recorded on video and transmitted globally.

Extensive opera commitments limited concert and recital activity, yet early in her career she participated in several presentations of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, one of them at Bayreuth. Separate recital engagements included journeys to Australia and Japan plus appearances in the chief musical cities of Europe and North America. These programs centered on German and Scandinavian lieder and incorporated seldom-heard works by Stenhammar; “I Could Have Danced All Night” frequently served as an encore.

Nilsson’s instrument projected like a laser beam slicing through the orchestra, in contrast to the wall-of-sound timbre associated with Kirsten Flagstad or Jessye Norman. Its sheer size and penetrating brilliance occasionally produced the impression of exceeding the intended pitch. Nearly all of her central roles survive on disc. Whenever Wagner’s operas continue to be staged, her contribution will remain central to their performance history, and no interpreter has matched the security and brilliance she brought to Puccini’s Turandot. Her autobiography, Mina minnesbilder, appeared in Stockholm in 1977.