From a Swedish farm

No-one could have predicted that Birgit Nilsson would one day become an icon among the interpreters of Wagner, Strauss, Puccini and Verdi and perform at the world’s leading opera houses. Born on 17 May 1918 in Västra Karup, a town in the southern Swedish province of Skåne, the young farmer’s daughter was at first simply seen as an exceptional vocal talent who was welcome to sing in the local church choir. Even on the night before her audition to study at the Stockholm Royal Academy of Music, she was expected to milk the cows on her parents’ farm…

Birgit Nilsson then completed her professional training as a soprano at the Stockholm Opera School, and in 1946 made her debut as Agathe in ‘Der Freischütz’ at the Kungliga Teatern in Stockholm. But her stage repertoire quickly broke through the lyric and youthful-dramatic roles. The highly gifted singer went on to perform the great dramatic soprano parts at a young age. She soon achieved great acclaim at international level, both from her audience and the critics. Early recordings were made of her concerts and opera performances, and the first studio recordings soon followed

…via Bayreuth to the Met

Wagner’s ‘Isolde’, ‘Brünnhilde’, Puccini’s ‘Turandot’, Richard Strauss’ ‘Elektra’, ‘Salome’ and the Dyer’s Wife in ‘Die Frau ohne Schatten’ - these were parts that became the core repertoire of Birgit Nilsson. Her incomparable performance of ‘Isolde’ was legendary; she sang it more than 200 times, working with the world’s best conductors, who ranged from Karajan, Soti and Sawallisch to Böhm, to whom she felt artistically particularly close.

"Of all the – 33, to be precise – ‘Tristan’ conductors with whom I have worked, I would assert that no-one can match Böhm’s musical interpretation", Nilsson said in Bayreuth in 1991.

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