Double diva day
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In the lead up to LA Opera’s mounting of Turandot on May 18th (hooray!) I thought I’d touch on some of my favorite recordings and new re-masters I’ve discovered. I have them all.
This Sony Classical set of live performances covers a golden quarter century in the singing and staging of Wagner. Birgit Nilsson shared it with many other legends, and many of them appear on these discs.
On the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of your birth, I am perplexed as to what to write about you that isn’t of the highest, most ecstatic praise and of deliriously effusive encomiums.
Now we have considered the three “winners” in the Tristan competition, let’s turn to the also-rans, or, to be more optimistic, the runners up.
“I will never sing the role again. It was frightful. We were a set of madwomen…There is nothing beyond Elektra. We have lived and reached the furthest boundaries in dramatic writing for the voice with Wagner. But Richard Strauss goes beyond him. His singing voices are lost. We have come to a full stop.”
Myto’s transfer of Herbert von Karajan’s star-bedecked 1958 Die Walküre from La Scala gives collectors on a budget access to one of the legendary performances committed to tape.
In addition to the dates noted by WindyCityOperaman, today also also marks the 10th anniversary of the death of Birgit Nilsson.
Just discovered: a Swedish documentary about Birgit Nilsson.
Mike Richter‘s documentation of the 1962 Buenos Aires Ring continues with the second act of Die Walküre featuring Birgit Nilsson and Hans Hotter.
The best way to pay tribute to a legendary Wagner interpreter? Why, to perform the “Liebestod” as beautifully as Nina Stemme did at the first Birgit Nilsson Prize Award Ceremony just last week. October 13, 2009 More details about The Birgit Nilsson Prize Award Ceremony 2009 are online.
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