:Birgit Nilsson

Birgit Nilsson was born Märta Birgit Svensson on a farm at Västra Karup in Skåne (100 km/60 miles north of Malmö) to Nils Svensson and Justina Svensson (née Paulsson). When she was three years old she began picking out melodies on a toy piano her mother bought for her. She once told an interviewer that she could sing before she could walk, adding, "I even sang in my dreams". Her vocal talent was first noticed when she began to sing in her church choir. A choirmaster near her home heard her sing and advised her to take voice lessons.

She studied with Ragnar Blennow in Åstorp for six months to prepare for an audition at the Royal Swedish Academy of Music in Stockholm where she came in first out of a group of 47 singers and was awarded the Christina Nilsson scholarship named for the famous soprano. Her teachers at the academy were Joseph Hislop and Arne Sunnegårdh. However, she considered herself self-taught: "The best teacher is the stage", she told an interviewer in 1981. "You walk out onto it, and you have to learn to project." She deplored her early instruction and attributed her success to native talent. "My first voice teacher [Hislop] almost killed me ... [T]he second was almost as bad."

In 1946, Nilsson made her debut at the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm with only three days' notice, replacing the ailing singer scheduled for the role of Agathe in Carl Maria von Weber's Der Freischütz. Conductor Leo Blech was not very kind to her and, as she wrote in her autobiography, she even contemplated suicide after the performance. In 1947 she claimed national attention in Verdi's Lady Macbeth conducted by Fritz Busch.{{cite news|last1=Blyth|first1=Alan|author1-link=Alan Blyth|last2=Barker |first2=Frank Granville |title=Obituary: Birgit Nilsson|newspaper=The Guardian|date=12 January 2006 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/jan/12/guardianobituaries.arts |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171025073534/https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/jan/12/guardianobituaries.arts |archive-date=25 October 2017 |url-status=live |access-date=29 April 2018}} A wealth of parts followed, from Richard Strauss and Verdi to Wagner, Puccini, and Tchaikovsky. In Stockholm she built up a steady repertoire of roles in the lyric-dramatic field, including Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Aida, Lisa in The Queen of Spades (opera), Tosca, Venus in Tannhäuser, Sieglinde in Die Walküre, Senta in Der fliegende Holländer and the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier, one of her favourite roles, all sung in Swedish. In 1949 she sang in Ariadne auf Naxos with Hjördis Schymberg and Elisabeth Söderström among others.

File:Bnilssonlmacbeth.jpg, Stockholm, 1947]]

Under Fritz Busch's tutelage, her career took wing. He was instrumental in securing her first important engagement outside Sweden, as Electra in Mozart's Idomeneo at the Glyndebourne Festival in 1951. Her debut at the Vienna State Opera in 1953 was a turning point; she would be a regular performer there for more than 25 years. It was followed by Elsa in Wagner's

Lohengrin at the Bayreuth Festival in 1954, then her first Brünnhilde in a complete Ring at the Bavarian State Opera, at the Munich Opera Festival of 1954. Later she returned as Sieglinde, Brünnhilde, and Isolde until 1969.

She took the title role of Turandot, which is brief but requires an unusually big sound, to La Scala in Milan in 1958, and then to the rest of Italy. Nilsson made her American debut as Brünnhilde in Wagner's Die Walküre in 1956 with the San Francisco Opera. She attained international stardom after a performance as Isolde at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City in 1959, which made front-page news. She said that the single biggest event in her life was being asked to perform at the opening of the 180th season at La Scala as Turandot in 1958. She performed at many major opera houses in the world including Vienna, Berlin, the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, Tokyo, Paris, Buenos Aires, Chicago, and Hamburg.

She sang with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in the all-Wagner concert that opened the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House in 1973.{{cite web |url=http://aso.gov.au/titles/music/sydney-opera-house-opening/ |title=Sydney Opera House Opening Concert. |date=29 October 1973 |access-date=6 August 2012}}

Nilsson was widely known as the leading Wagnerian soprano of her time, the successor to the great Norwegian soprano Kirsten Flagstad, particularly as Brünnhilde. However, she also sang many of the other famous soprano roles, among them Leonore, Aida, Turandot, Tosca, Elektra, and Salome. She had, according to The New York Times, a "voice of impeccable trueness and impregnable stamina".

The conductor Erich Leinsdorf thought that her longevity, like Flagstad's, had something to do with her Scandinavian heritage, remarking that Wagner required "thoughtful, patient and methodical people." Nilsson attributed her long career to no particular lifestyle or regimen. "I do nothing special", she once said. "I don't smoke. I drink a little wine and beer. I was born with the right set of parents."

In sheer power, her high notes were sometimes compared to those of the Broadway belter Ethel Merman. However Nilsson claims her "explosive" high notes that were her biggest asset on-stage "have not been recorded like they should have been" in the studio. She later lamented: "It always made me a little bit sad when I heard my own recordings. And many people told me that I sang much better in person than I do on the recordings! That didn't flatter me at all, because I know what's going to be left when I am no longer singing".{{Cite web|url=http://www.bruceduffie.com/nilsson.html|title=Birgit Nilsson Interview with Bruce Duffie}}

Twice at the Met, Nilsson sustained injuries that kept her from performing. In February 1971, she sprained her ankle during a performance of Elektra that resulted in cancellation of one performance (that was replaced by a historic performance of Fidelio starring Christa Ludwig). Nilsson recovered to sing the broadcast performance of Elektra on 27 February. More seriously, in March 1974 she fell and dislocated her shoulder during a rehearsal of Götterdämmerung.{{cite news |title=Wagnerian Soprano Injured |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4831500/wagnerian_soprano_injured/|newspaper=The Robesonian|location=Lumberton, North Carolina|date=5 March 1974 |page=2 |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=4 April 2016}} {{Open access}} While recuperating in her hospital room at Roosevelt Hospital she said, "other than my bruises and my black and blues I feel fine". Although able to sing Brünnhilde for the first two performances with her arm in a sling, her injury caused her to miss subsequent performances, including that season's Götterdämmerung broadcast. The New York Times' review of the production's 8 March opening night is reprinted in the Metropolitan Opera Archives.

Beginning at the summer of 1968 at the Bayreuth Festival, Nilsson was obsessively stalked by a much younger American actress and model, Nell Theobald, until Theobald's suicide nine years later in 1977. Nilsson recounted her experiences with Theobald at length in her memoir, La Nilsson, in which she referred to Theobald solely as "Miss N." The stalking incident was later featured in Opera News magazine and The New York Times.{{cite web |url=http://www.metoperafamily.org/operanews/issue/article.aspx?id=5277&issueID=336 |title=The Star and the Stalker |author=Kathryn Leigh Scott |author-link=Kathryn Leigh Scott |work=Opera News |date=August 2009 |volume=74 |issue=2 |access-date=6 August 2009}}{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/21/arts/music/21blum.html?pagewanted=all |title=Soprano's Tale: Obsession, Love and Death. Offstage|author=Ralph Blumenthal|newspaper=The New York Times|date=21 May 2006 |access-date=6 August 2009}}

Nilsson did not get along with famous conductor Herbert von Karajan. Once when rehearsing on stage at the Vienna Staatsoper, her string of pearls broke. While helping her retrieve them, Karajan asked, "Are these real pearls bought with your La Scala fees?" Nilsson replied, "No, these are fake pearls bought with your Vienna Staatsoper fees." When Nilsson first arrived at the Met to rehearse the production of Die Walküre conducted by Karajan, she said, "Nu, where's Herbie?" And Karajan once sent Nilsson a cable several pages long, proposing in great detail a variety of projects, different dates and operas. Nilsson cabled back: "Busy. Birgit."{{cite book|title=The New York Times Biographical Service|volume=2|publisher=The New York Times & Arno Press|year=1971|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xiJBAQAAIAAJ|access-date=29 April 2018|page=4301|quote=Several years ago, in response to his detailed, two-page cablegram offering her a long list of new production Miss Nilsson sent the maestro a curt two-word cable: "Busy. Birgit." Their feud broke into print two years ago when the soprano canceled several Metropolitan engagements because she felt Mr. von Karajan wanted to work another soprano into her favorite parts. 'When the birds aren't happy they don't sing', she declared. Such Nilsson moods pass quickly, ordinarily.}}

The Swedish photographer Lennart Nilsson, who became world famous for his documentation of pregnancy from conception to birth, was asked by the magazine Life to photograph Birgit Nilsson's vocal cords as she sang high C. Birgit Nilsson turned the proposal down with the words "Your photographer wants me to swallow the tiny camera so he can take pictures of the vocal cord ^{{sic}}. I don't want that, since I know where it has been before."{{cite web |url=http://gd.se/kultur/musik/1.415086-gatan-birgit-nilsson-lever-vidare |title=Gåtan Birgit Nilsson lever vidare (in Swedish) |access-date=29 August 2012 |archive-date=2 May 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140502013318/http://gd.se/kultur/musik/1.415086-gatan-birgit-nilsson-lever-vidare |url-status=dead }} Eventually, though, she agreed on having the pictures taken.{{cite web |url=http://hbl.fi/kultur/recension/2012-08-02/ar-gastromikrofonin-framtidens-melodi |title=Är gastromikrofonin framtidens melodi? (in Swedish) |access-date=29 August 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140716103728/http://hbl.fi/kultur/recension/2012-08-02/ar-gastromikrofonin-framtidens-melodi |archive-date=16 July 2014 |df=dmy-all}}

There was a healthy competition between Nilsson and tenor Franco Corelli as to who could hold the high C the longest in Act II of Turandot. In one tour performance, after she outlasted him on the high C, he stormed off to Rudolf Bing during the next intermission, saying that he was not going to continue the performance. Bing, who knew how to handle Corelli's tantrums, suggested that he retaliate by biting Nilsson on the neck when Calaf kisses Turandot in Act III. Corelli didn't bite her but he was so delighted with the idea that he told her about Bing's suggestion. She then cabled Bing, informing him she had to cancel the next two performances because she had contracted rabies.{{cite book |last=Seghers |first=R. |title=Franco Corelli: Prince of Tenors |publisher=Amadeus Press |series=Opera biography series |year=2008 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=olEIAQAAMAAJ |access-date=29 April 2018 |page=216 |isbn=9781574671636 |quote=Later she sent a legendary telegram to Rudolf Bing: 'Muss die kommende Vorstellungen absagen stop schwere Bissverletzung stop Birgit' (Have to cancel all coming performances stop severe bite wounds stop Birgit). Bing, in whom Birgit Nilsson had found a lively verbal sparring partner since her arrival at the Met, immediately saw the public-relations value of the telegram and leaked to the press that Nilsson had written that she had contracted rabies. From there the story ...}}{{cite book |last=Fiedler |first=J. |title=Molto Agitato: The Mayhem Behind the Music at the Metropolitan Opera |publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group |year=2003 |isbn=978-1-4000-7589-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v9gtOoMw8RAC&pg=PT91 |access-date=29 April 2018 |page=91 |quote=... When a jealous Franco Corelli nipped her neck while she held a high C longer than he could, Nilsson called Bing the next day to say she could not go on that night: "I have rabies", she announced. Bing loved her spontaneity ...}}{{cite book |title=Veckojournalen |publisher=Åhlén & Åkerlunds |year=1969 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eAMdAQAAMAAJ |access-date=29 April 2018 |page=40 |language=sv |quote='Gå in bara, och när du ska kyssa henne så bit henne ordentligt!' Det gjorde Corelli. Nästa dag fick Bing ett telegram : Kan inte sjunga. Biten av en hund. Har rabies. Birgit Nilsson. — Man ska skämta sig igenom vardagen, sa hon en gång. Det är säkert inget dumt recept ...}}{{cite book|last=Leinsdorf|first=E.|author-link=Erich Leinsdorf|title=Cadenza: A Musical Career|publisher=Houghton Mifflin |year=1976 |url=https://archive.org/details/cadenzamusicalca00lein|via=Internet Archive|url-access=registration |access-date=29 April 2018 |page=[https://archive.org/details/cadenzamusicalca00lein/page/111 111] |isbn=9780395244012 |quote=The bill was Puccini's Turandot, the stars were Birgit Nilsson and Franco Corelli, the conductor Stokowski, and I sat next to Bing in the audience. Toward the close of "In questa reggia" in act two Nilsson held the high C longer than the tenor. Furious over this, Corelli stalked ... This appealed to Corelli, and all proceeded as suggested until at the final curtain Nilsson called for the general manager, loudly crying: 'Mr. Bing, get me a veterinarian, I have the rabies.' Bing told me later that the ...}}{{cite book |last=Mihalap |first=H. |title=Where There's Hope: There's Life and Laughter |publisher=Trudy Knox, Publisher |year=1994 |isbn=978-0-9611354-6-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nXfWAAAAMAAJ |access-date=29 April 2018 |page=82 |quote=By now legendary is the night in Boston that Birgit Nilsson, the great Swedish soprano, held a note longer than Franco Corelli, who had near apoplexy about it later in the dressing room. He threatened to quit that instant until Bing cleverly suggested he bite Nilsson in the next act. Apparently he lost his nerve, but later Nilsson sent Bing a telegram from Minneapolis, the next stop on the tour. 'Corelli bit me tonight', she wired, 'am being treated for rabies.'}}{{Excessive citations inline|date=October 2023}}

When Nilsson started singing Aida at the Met, soprano Zinka Milanov was miffed as Aida had theretofore been "her" role. After one performance in which Nilsson was singing, Milanov commandeered and drove off in the Rolls-Royce Nilsson had hired for after the performance. When asked about this afterwards, Milanov said "If Madame Nilsson takes my roles, I must take her Rolls."{{cite web |title=The Roles Birgit Nilsson & Zinka Milanov Shared & Fought Over |website=operawire.com|date=17 May 2017 |url=http://operawire.com/the-roles-birgit-nilsson-zinka-milanov-shared-fought-over/ |access-date=29 April 2018}}

The secret to singing Isolde, she said, was "comfortable shoes."{{cite book | last1=Emmons | first1=S. | last2=Thomas | first2=A. | title=Power Performance for Singers: Transcending the Barriers | publisher=Oxford University Press, USA | year=1998 | isbn=978-0-19-511224-5 | url=https://archive.org/details/powerperformance0000emmo|via=Internet Archive| url-access=registration | access-date=29 April 2018 | page=[https://archive.org/details/powerperformance0000emmo/page/216 216] | quote=Rehearse in the clothing and shoes that you plan to use. (Remember what Birgit Nilsson said when asked how to sing Wagnerian opera? "Get a good pair of comfortable shoes.") }} After a disagreement with the Australian soprano Joan Sutherland, Nilsson was asked if she thought Sutherland's famous bouffant hairdo was real. She answered: "I don't know. I haven't pulled it yet."{{cite book |author=Joan Sutherland |title=A Prima Donna's Progress: The Autobiography of Joan Sutherland |publisher=Regnery Publishing|year=1997 |isbn=978-0-89526-374-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K7cQAQAAMAAJ |access-date=29 April 2018 |page=155 |quote=It was on this occasion that Birgit Nilsson, when asked was Miss Sutherland's hair real, was reported (in Leonard Lyon's column) to have replied: 'I don't know – I haven't pulled it yet!'}}

Once, asked what was her favourite role, she answered: "Isolde made me famous. Turandot made me rich." When long-time Metropolitan Opera director Sir Rudolf Bing was asked if she was difficult, he reportedly said "Not at all. You put enough money in, and a glorious voice comes out."{{cite book |title=International Record Review |publisher=International Record Review|volume=6|number=2|year=2006|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cEE5AQAAIAAJ |access-date=29 April 2018 |page=1 |quote=The world of opera is mourning Birgit Nilsson, who died on December 25th. [On page 14 John Hughes relates a few tales about her famed wit, including an anecdote regarding her strained relationship with Rudolf Bing, to which could be added another.] When asked if Nilsson was difficult, Bing's response was 'Not at all, you put enough money in and a glorious voice comes out. When preparing her taxes, Nilsson was asked if she had any dependents ...}} When Nilsson was preparing her taxes and was asked if she had any dependents, she replied, "Yes, just one, Rudolf Bing."{{cite book |last=Wechsberg |first=J. |title=The Opera |publisher=Macmillan|year=1972 |url=https://archive.org/details/opera00wech|via=Internet Archive|url-access=registration |access-date=29 April 2018 |page=[https://archive.org/details/opera00wech/page/189 189] |quote=... und Isolde depended on the availability of Birgit Nilsson; there was no one else in her class. (According to a story told around the Met, when an accountant helped Miss Nilsson with her income tax return and asked whether she had any dependents, she replied at once, "Yes, Mr Bing.")}}

Nilsson was also famous for her ability to make money. She became one of the highest-paid singers in the field, in part because of the rarity of her skills. Being a shrewd businesswoman, she negotiated much of her own career. She never ranted or engaged in tantrums. She would begin contract talks by refusing every offer and being evasive about her availability. This tack would continue until the impresario offered something she wanted. Nilsson's reply would be "maybe".{{Cite quote|date=October 2023}}

File:Birgitn.jpg, Stockholm, 1960s]]

Nilsson was known for standing up to conductors. In a 1967 rehearsal of Die Walküre with Herbert von Karajan conducting, Nilsson responded to the gloomy lighting of the production by wearing a miner's helmet (complete with Valkyrian wings).{{cite book |last1=Blum |first1=D. |last2=Steinhardt |first2=A. |title=Quintet: Five Journeys Toward Musical Fulfillment |publisher=Cornell University Press |series=G – Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary Subjects Series |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-8014-3731-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/quintetfivejourn00blum|via=Internet Archive|url-access=registration |access-date=29 April 2018 |page=[https://archive.org/details/quintetfivejourn00blum/page/173 173]}} When on some occasion von Karajan urged a retake "but this time with more heart. That's the place where you have your purse", Nilsson replied, "I'm so pleased to find we have something in common."{{cite book |last1=Nilsson |first1=B. |last2=Popper |first2=D. J.|title=La Nilsson: My Life in Opera |publisher=University Press of New England |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-55553-859-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YvPwCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA113 |access-date=29 April 2018 |page=113}} When Georg Solti, in Tristan und Isolde, insisted on tempos too slow for Nilsson's taste, she made the first performance even slower, inducing a change of heart in the conductor.{{Citation needed|date=October 2023}}

Despite her worldwide recognition, Nilsson said she was nervous before every major performance. "Before a premiere, on the way to the opera, I'd hope for just a small, small accident, it didn't need to be much, but just so I would not have to sing", she said in a 1977 interview on Swedish TV. Nilsson often spoke of her limits. She said her voice was not a good fit with what she described as the softer textures and refined tones of Italian operas. Nonetheless, she sang roles in Italianate operas such as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni.{{cite book |last=Terkel |first=S. |title=And They All Sang: Adventures of an Eclectic Disc Jockey |publisher=New Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-1-59558-655-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hsaIG4lSOyYC&pg=PA33 |access-date=29 April 2018 |page=33}}

Nilsson recorded all of her major roles in major commercial recordings of the complete works, as well as about a dozen solo recitals of arias, art songs, concerts, and hymns—all were originally released on vinyl LP format and most have been reissued on CD or in digital format. Partly because of her availability to play Brünnhilde, Decca Records undertook the expensive project of making a studio recording of Wagner's four-opera Ring Cycle, conducted by Solti and produced by John Culshaw. The effort took seven years, from 1958 to 1965. A film of the proceedings made her a familiar image for arts-conscious television viewers.{{cite magazine|magazine=Opera News|publisher=Metropolitan Opera Guild|volume=61|number=9–17|year=1997|page=5}}{{title missing|date=December 2023}}

Though a frequent visitor to the Metropolitan Opera, Nilsson did not always see eye to eye with its redoubtable general manager, Rudolf Bing (who was often said to dislike Wagner), nor with conductor Herbert von Karajan. Subsequently, she made fewer New York appearances than hoped in the early 1970s and was virtually excluded from the Salzburg Festival. Her American career was derailed in the mid-1970s by US Internal Revenue Service claims filed for back taxes. Several years later a schedule of payments was worked out, and Nilsson's hiatus from the United States ended. When she returned, Donal Henahan wrote in The New York Times, "The famous shining trumpet of a voice is still far from sounding like a cornet."{{cite book |title=The New York Times Biographical Service|publisher=The New York Times & Arno Press|volume=12|year=1981 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jDwoAQAAIAAJ |access-date=29 April 2018 |page=1393 |quote=As recently as last season, Donal Henahan declared that 'the famous shining trumpet of a voice is still far from sounding like a cornet.' Miss Nilsson's longevity in this taxing profession is a marvel. She has outlasted even Kirsten Flagstad who left the operatic stage at 58.}}

Nilsson appeared at the Metropolitan Opera 223 times in 16 roles. She sang two complete Ring cycles in the 1961–62 season, and another in 1974–75. She was Isolde 33 times, and Turandot 52. She played most of the other major soprano parts: Aida, Tosca, the Dyer's Wife in Strauss's Die Frau ohne Schatten, Salome, Elektra, Verdi's Lady Macbeth, and Leonore in Beethoven's Fidelio. In 1966 she simultaneously performed the roles of Venus and Elisabeth (who never appear together) in Wagner's Tannhäuser.{{Cite web|url=http://69.18.170.204/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=205800&limit=3000&xBranch=ALL&xsdate=&xedate=&theterm=1965-66&x=0&xhomepath=http://69.18.170.204/archives/&xhome=http://69.18.170.204/archives/bibpro.htm|title=BiblioTech PRO V3.2b|website=69.18.170.204|access-date=2019-10-31}} She memorably appeared as replacement Sieglinde to Rita Hunter's Brünnhilde in the 1970s. She appeared 232 times at the Vienna State Opera from 1954 to 1982, and the Vienna Philharmonic, the company's orchestra, made her an honorary member in 1999. "If there ever was someone that one can call a real star today and a world-famous opera singer during her time then that was Frau Nilsson", said Ioan Holender, director of the Vienna State Opera.

File:Birgit Nilsson, Swedish Wagnerian Soprano, at home.jpg

Nilsson's autobiography, Mina minnesbilder (My memoirs in pictures) was published in Stockholm in 1977. She retired in 1984 to her childhood home in the Skåne province of southern Sweden, where her father had been a sixth-generation farmer and she had worked to grow beets and potatoes until she was 23. In an interview in the mid-1990s, she appeared happy, serene and as unpretentious as ever. "I've always tried to remember what my mother used to tell me", she said. "Stay close to the earth. Then when you fall down, it won't hurt so much."

In 1981, Sweden issued a postage stamp showing Nilsson as Turandot.{{cite book |title=The New York Times Biographical Service|publisher=The New York Times & Arno Press|volume=12|year=1981 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jDwoAQAAIAAJ |access-date=29 April 2018 |page=1393 |quote=It is Birgit Nilsson — and although 63 years old and a survivor of 35 years in the world's most demanding dramatic soprano repertory, she can still summon an instrument of stunning power and clarity. ... Payment schedules were worked out, tempers soothed, and in February 1980, Miss Nilsson gave New York a triumphant Elektra. ... As she travels the world, her honors follow her — one of them a newly issued Swedish postage stamp bearing her likeness in the role of 'Turandot'.}} She received the Illis quorum gold medal, today the highest award that can be conferred upon a Swedish citizen by the Government of Sweden.{{cite book |author=Nordic Council |title=Nordisk kontakt |publisher=Statens reproduktionsanstalt |year=1981 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=miIdAAAAIAAJ |language=sv |access-date=29 April 2018 |page=724 |quote=Sångerskan Birgit Nilsson har fått Illis Qourum i I8:e storleken. Hon fick medaljen för "sina synnerligen uppmärksammade insatser inom operan och annan sångkonst", heter det i regeringens motivering. Det är första gången Illis Quorum i 18:e storleken tilldelats en kvinna och det är fem år sedan den delades ut förra gången.}} In 1988, on the occasion of the 350th anniversary of New Sweden, the first Swedish settlement in America, The American-Scandinavian Foundation named their prize for promising young American opera singers the Birgit Nilsson Prize. Nilsson personally chaired several competitions.{{cite book |author=Swedish Council of America |title=Sweden & America |publisher=Swedish Council of America |year=1998 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o3YOAQAAMAAJ |language=de |access-date=29 April 2018 |page=9}}

Nilsson died, aged 87, on 25 December 2005 at her home at Bjärlöv, a small village near Kristianstad in Skåne in the same county where she was born. No cause of death was released. She was survived by her husband Bertil Niklasson (died March 2007), a veterinary surgeon whom she had met on a train and married in 1948. They had no children.{{cite news |title=Birgit Nilsson, 87; Wagnerian Soprano Known for the Power of Her Voice and Personality|newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=12 January 2006 |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-jan-12-me-nilsson12-story.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150409153553/http://articles.latimes.com/2006/jan/12/local/me-nilsson12 |archive-date=9 April 2015 |url-status=live |access-date=29 April 2018 }}

Three years after Nilsson's death, in December 2008, the Birgit Nilsson Foundation announced that it would award a prize every two to three years to a concert or opera singer, a classical or opera conductor, or a specific production by an opera company. The prize was funded by Nilsson herself. The foundation said that Nilsson had chosen the first winner, to be announced in early 2009.

On 20 February 2009, Spanish tenor Plácido Domingo was announced as the inaugural recipient of the prize, which carried with it a cash award of $1,000,000.{{cite web |url=http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/article/domingo%20awarded%201%20million%20prize_1095650 |title=Placido Domingo | Domingo Awarded $1 Million Prize |publisher=Contactmusic |date=20 February 2009 |access-date=23 September 2011}} The first award ceremony took place in the Royal Swedish Opera on 13 October 2009. King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden personally presented the prize to the designated winner. A jury has been set up by the foundation to make recommendations for future prizes.Dave Itzkoff: [https://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/06/arts/music/06arts-FORCLASSICAL_BRF.html "For Classical Music, a $1 Million Prize"], The New York Times, 5 December 2008 The second winner of the Birgit Nilsson prize was Riccardo Muti,{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12761742 |work=BBC News|title=Riccardo Muti wins Birgit Nilsson Prize |date=16 March 2011}} who received the award in Stockholm on 13 October 2011. On 9 April 2014 it was announced that the third recipient of the prize would be the Vienna Philharmonic.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/10/arts/music/vienna-orchestra-to-receive-1-million-birgit-nilsson-prize.html|newspaper=The New York Times|title=Vienna Orchestra to Receive $1 Million Birgit Nilsson Prize |date=9 April 2014}}

A Pågatågen train has been named for Nilsson by operator Skånetrafiken, with the train Birgit Nilsson being the first in the new X61 series to depart Malmö Central Station in December 2009.{{Cite news |title=Häng med ombord på nya Pågatågen |url=https://www.sydsvenskan.se/2009-12-04/hang-med-ombord-pa-nya-pagatagen |last=Stendahl |first=Sandra |date=2009-12-04 |access-date=2023-02-28 |work=Sydsvenskan |last2=Andersson |first2=Elisabeth |language=sv}}

On 6 April 2011, the Bank of Sweden announced that Nilsson's portrait will feature on the 500 kronor banknote, beginning in October 2016.{{cite web |url=http://www.riksbank.com/templates/Page.aspx?id=46685 |title=Sveriges Riksbank/Riksbanken – Sweden's new banknotes and coins |publisher=Riksbank.com |access-date=23 September 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927172146/http://www.riksbank.com/templates/Page.aspx?id=46685 |archive-date=27 September 2011 |df=dmy}}{{cite news |url=http://www.thelocal.se/33042/20110406 |access-date=7 April 2011 |title=Ingmar Bergman to adorn new Swedish banknotes |date=6 April 2011 |author=Peter Vinthagen Simpson}}

• 1954 Hovsångerska (Royal Court Singer), Stockholm, SwedenUnless otherwise indicated, this section is sourced from {{cite web |title=Honours and Awards |url=http://birgitnilssonprize.org/birgit-nilsson/honours-awards/ |website=BirgitNilssonPrize.org|access-date=26 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160403040607/http://birgitnilssonprize.org/birgit-nilsson/honours-awards/ |archive-date=3 April 2016}}
• 1958 Gold Medal, Teatro Liceo, Barcelona, Spain
• 1960 Sweden: Royal medal Litteris et Artibus
• 1960 Honorary member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music, Stockholm
• 1966 Sonning Award, Denmark{{cite book |last=Leach |first=H. G.|title=The American-Scandinavian Review |publisher=American-Scandinavian Foundation|issue=v. 54–55 |year=1966 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nMsgAAAAMAAJ |access-date=29 April 2018 |page=203 |quote=The Leonie Sonning Prize for 1966 was recently awarded the Swedish singer BirgitNilsson. The amount of the Prize is 50,000 Danish kroner. The Leonie Sonning Prize was awarded for the first time in 1959, with Igor Stravinsky being the recipient. The 1965 winner was conductor Leonard Bernstein.}}{{cite book |title=Theatre in Denmark |publisher=Danish Centre of the I.T.I. |issue=2–10 |year=1966 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1w8iAQAAMAAJ |access-date=29 April 2018 |page=3 |quote=This year's Leonie Sonning Music Prize was given to Birgit Nilsson, who visited The Royal Theatre on May 17th, 1966, for a guest performance in Fidelio. Birgit Nilsson honoured young Danish singers by donating her salary for this performance to be used as a scholarship for two young female singers.}}
• 1967 Gold Medal For the Promotion of the Art of Music (Swedish: För tonkonstens främjande) of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music, Stockholm
• 1968 Austrian Kammersängerin in 1968
• 1968 Honorary Member of the Vienna State Opera, Vienna, Austria
• 1970 Honorary doctorate from Merrimack College, Andover, Mass. USA
• 1970 Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music, London, England
• 1970 Bavarian Kammersängerin, Munich, Germany
• 1972 Denmark: Royal medal Ingenio et Arti
• 1974 Sweden: Commander First Class of the Order of Vasa
• 1975 Norway: Commander First Class of the Order of St. Olav
• 1981 Gold medal of the Royal Swedish Opera (Swedish: Kungliga Operan), Stockholm
• 1981 Sweden: Illis Quorum gold medal, 18th grade with chain
• 1982 Honorary doctorate from the Manhattan School of Music, New York City
• 1982 Honorary doctorate from Michigan State University, East Lansing, US
• 1982 Swedish-American of the Year Award, New York City
• 1988 Germany: Cross of Merit First Class of the Lower Saxony Order of Merit, Land of Lower Saxony
• 1991 France: Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres
• 1993 Royal Opera House Silver Medal for 25-year's service as a Guest Artist, London, England
• 1994 Award of the Sweden–America Foundation (Swedish: Sverige-Amerikastiftelsen), New York City
• 1997 Honorary doctorate of the Sibelius Academy, Helsinki, Finland
• 1999 Honorary member of the Vienna Philharmonic, Vienna, Austria
• 2012 Gramophone's Hall of Fame in 2012

• The Metropolitan Opera Centennial Gala, Deutsche Grammophon DVD, 00440-073-4538

{{Reflist|30em}}

• Nilsson, Birgit, Mina minnesbilder, Stockholm: Bonnier, 1977; {{ISBN|91-0-042069-7}}
• Nilsson, Birgit, My Memoirs in Pictures, translated from the Swedish by Thomas Teal, Garden City: Doubleday, 1981; {{ISBN|0-385-14835-6}}
• Nilsson, Birgit, La Nilsson, Stockholm: Fischer, 1995; {{ISBN|91-7054-756-4}}
• La Nilsson: My Life in Opera by Birgit Nilsson, foreword by Georg Solti, afterword by Peggy Tueller. Translated by Doris Jung Popper, University Press of New England, 2007 {{ISBN|978-1-55553-670-1}}
• {{cite AV media|type=Audiobook CD|publisher=Bonnier Audio |date=July 2005 |language=sv |url=http://www.bonnierforlagen.se/Forlag/Forfattare/?personId=32769 |title=La Nilsson: My Life in Opera|access-date=4 December 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20131204202638/http://www.bonnierforlagen.se/Forlag/Forfattare/?personId=32769 |archive-date=4 December 2013 |df=dmy-all |id=[Audio book publishing information]|location=Stockholm}}
• Liese, Kirsten, Wagnerian Heroines. A Century of Great Isoldes and Brünnhildes, English translation: Charles Scribner, [http://edition-karo.de/ma%20liese%20GB.htm Edition Karo] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200703193305/http://edition-karo.de/ma%20liese%20GB.htm |date=3 July 2020 }}, Berlin, 2013
• {{SKBL|name=Märta Birgit Nilsson|author=Lindkvist, Thomas}}

{{external links|date=October 2023}}

{{Commons category}}

General

• {{official|https://birgitnilsson.com/}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20050803085520/http://www.deccaclassics.com/artists/nilsson/ Decca Classics website]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070329065327/http://66.187.153.86/archives/frame.htm Metropolitan Opera Archives]
• [https://birgitnilsson.com/prize/ Birgit Nilsson Prize]

Audio

• {{YouTube|KgrFFtjLJUs|Birgit Nilsson sings Turandot, 1960s}} (video)
• {{YouTube|HQpm6A4SF_Q|Birgit Nilsson – Salome – Gala Bing, MET 1972|link=no}} (video)
• {{YouTube|xHdaUASO9Pc|Birgit Nilsson as Lady Macbeth, 1970s}} (video)
• {{YouTube|146tTKSXu7s|Birgit Nilsson sings Götterdämmerung, 1960s}} in a recording session for Solti's Ring (video)
• [https://aso.gov.au/titles/music/sydney-opera-house-opening/ "Dich, teure Halle"] (audio, from Tannhäuser), Nilsson conducted by Charles Mackerras for the 1973 Sydney Opera House Opening Concert

Television appearances

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070930071952/http://svt.se/content/1/c6/51/90/54/oa-1971-0515-paparkett-birgit-tk100340_hi.asx Birgit Nilsson on Swedish talk show På parkett, after a recent performance as Turandot in Berlin, 15 May 1971 (part 1)] (in Swedish)
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070930071959/http://svt.se/content/1/c6/51/90/82/oa-1971-0515-paparkett-broman-tk102450_hi.asx Birgit Nilsson on Swedish talk show På parkett, with composer Sten Broman, 15 May 1971 (part 2)] (in Swedish)
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070930071812/http://svt.se/content/1/c6/51/77/04/oa-1999-0520-minnenas-birgitnilsson2_hi.asx Birgit Nilsson and Zarah Leander talking about life as a celebrity, on Swedish talk show Stjärna mot stjärna ('Star vs Star'), 25 December 1977] (in Swedish)
• {{YouTube|UIkxIl5swPw|Birgit Nilsson and Franco Corelli, on Swedish talk show Här är ditt liv ('This is your life'; Birgit Nilsson), November 1981}} (in Swedish)
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070930015044/http://svt.se/svt/road/Classic/shared/mediacenter/index.jsp?&d=42546&a=501996&lid=is_search527895&lpos=4','largevideoplayer',790,585,'scrolling=no,resizable=no,status=yes' News report from 1984 from when Birgit Nilsson gives a Master Class in Malmö, Sweden] (in Swedish)
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070930044623/http://svt.se/svt/road/Classic/shared/mediacenter/index.jsp?&d=45938&a=517789&lid=is_search527895&lpos=16','largevideoplayer',790,585,'scrolling=no,resizable=no,status=yes' Swedish news report from Birgit Nilsson's death with video clip together with comments from workers, fans and colleagues at the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm, Metropolitan in New York, the Wagner Society and from Italian Opera] (January 2006)

Interviews and articles

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070930201447/http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=1058&a=512506 "Glänsande debut", the debut at the Royal Opera in Stockholm, Dagens Nyheter, 10 October 1946] (in Swedish)
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20071001092138/http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=1058&a=512516 "Det finns ingen genväg för sångare", interview, Dagens Nyheter, 17 August 1986] (in Swedish)
• [http://www.svd.se/dynamiskt/kultur/did_5583006.asp "Birgit Nilsson fyller 85 utan krusiduller", interview, Svenska Dagbladet, 16 May 2003] (in Swedish)
• [http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/9906/30/birgit.html "Sjuksköterskorna mobbad mig, Operastjärnan Birgit Nilsson anmäler sjukhus för vanvård"], Aftonbladet 30 June 1999 (in Swedish)
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20060115032339/http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/nyheter/story/0,2789,761858,00.html "Så höll han allt hemligt"], [So he kept everything secret], on why Nilsson's death was kept a secret for 16 days; Aftonbladet, 13 January 2006 (in Swedish)
• {{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/14/arts/music/14nils.html |title=Nilsson in Person: The Glory of the Power |date=14 January 2006|newspaper=The New York Times|first=Anthony|last=Tommasini|author-link=Anthony Tommasini|access-date=26 April 2010|ref=none}}
• [https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2006/01/a-wagnerian-soprano-remembers-the-greatest-of-them-all.html "Birgit Nilsson: An unparalleled artist and a lovely, down-to-earth woman"], by Jane Eaglen, Slate, 16 January 2006
• {{cite magazine|title=Varewell to the Valkyrie|author=Peter G. Davis|magazine=Opera News|date=April 2006|volume=70|number=10|pages=82–83|ref=none}}

{{Léonie Sonning Music Prize laureates}}

{{Gramophone Hall of Fame}}

{{Portal bar|Biography|Opera}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nilsson, Birgit}}

Category:1918 births

Category:2005 deaths

Category:People from Båstad Municipality

Category:Grammy Award winners

Category:Swedish operatic sopranos

Category:Honorary members of the Royal Academy of Music

Category:Litteris et Artibus recipients

Category:Österreichischer Kammersänger

Category:Recipients of the Léonie Sonning Music Prize

Category:20th-century Swedish women opera singers

Category:Recipients of the Illis quorum

Category:Musicians from Skåne County