Word: nilsson
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Walkuere, the audience cheered and the press groped for comparisons with "the irrecoverable magic" of Swedish-born Soprano Olive Fremstad.* Last week another Swedish Wagnerian soprano strode the Met's stage, and this time the comparison was to the "incomparable" Flagstad herself. The debutante: 41-year-old Birgit Nilsson, whose appearance in a new production of Tristan und Isolde touched off the kind of debut furor the Met's Wagnerians have not witnessed in a quarter-century...
...solid (5 ft. 8 in., 150 lbs.) and imposing woman, Dramatic Soprano Nilsson was discovered, as the curtain rose, pacing the deck of the ship bearing Isolde to King Mark of Cornwall; for all the world she looked like a handsome Viking figurehead. In the long, angry denunciation of Tristan that followed, she displayed a big, flashing, vibrant voice that galvanized her audience and conveyed an immediate sense of the turbulent passions that animate the role. As the opera unfolded, Soprano Nilsson continued to dominate the stage with such ringing power that she cut without difficulty through the opulent textures...
...production as a whole was less exciting. German Tenor Karl Liebl, substituting as Tristan for the ailing Ramon Vinay, had neither stage presence nor the power to match the Nilsson salvos. Baritone Walter Cassel as Kurvenal and Bass Jerome Hines as King Mark both turned in workmanlike performances, and Soprano Irene Dalis was impressive as Brangaene. Conductor Karl Boehm led his orchestra through a methodical reading. As for the decor, with the world's best to choose from, the Met had again picked the second-rate. The sets by German Designer Teo Otto were pedestrian and confusing: starkly realistic...
...Soprano Nilsson's career has gathered slow momentum over the last decade. Born on a 'Swedish farm, she was still plowing fields when she was 18 ("My parents wanted I should be a good farmer") and singing in the local Lutheran church choir. Then a neighboring choirmaster started giving her vocal lessons, persuaded her to enter the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm. Delayed by the war, she made her first real splash in 1947 with the Stockholm Opera singing Verdi's Lady Macbeth. Gradually she developed a repertory that now includes all the Wagnerian soprano parts...
...Birgit Nilsson: Opera Arias (Angel). In her first American release, rising Swedish Soprano Nilsson sings selections from Wagner and Verdi in a big, flashing, vibrant voice long on power and drive, sometimes short on dramatic intensity...