Birgit Nilsson; "Ständchen"; Richard Strauss

This channel is the re-establishment of previous channels that have been sadly terminated. ================= Birgit Nilsson--soprano Janos Solyom--piano 1975 =================== "Birgit Nilsson, née Märta Birgit Svensson, (born May 17, 1918, Västra Karup, Sweden—died December 25, 2005, Västra Karup), Swedish operatic soprano, celebrated as a Wagnerian interpreter and known for her powerful, rich voice. On the advice of a local choirmaster, she went to study with Joseph Hislop in Stockholm, where she joined the Royal Opera and made her debut in 1946 as Agathe in Carl Maria von Weber’s Der Freischütz. A year later she achieved a major success there as Giuseppe Verdi’s Lady Macbeth. Other successes followed, particularly in Vienna and Bayreuth, where between 1954 and 1970 her Wagnerian roles included Isolde, Sieglinde, and Brünnhilde. In 1957 Nilsson made her debut at Covent Garden in London as Brünnhilde in the complete Ring cycle of Richard Wagner, and in 1958 she first appeared at Milan’s La Scala in the title role of Giacomo Puccini’s Turandot. She made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City as Isolde in 1959. Her other significant roles included Richard Strauss’s Salome and Elektra, Ludwig van Beethoven’s Leonore, and Carl Maria von Weber’s Rieza.