100 Greatest Singers: BIRGIT NILSSON

[petereuropa]

I read your comment about Mrs Nilsson, 100 Singers. Art is that all people can have her/his own opinion. It is interesting to read your opinion about Birgit Nilsson. Of course I want defend her, but I will listen more carfully in the future.

My opinion:

One of the best Opera performances on youtube is-Nilsson Salome-from the Met, Bing Gala 1972. I must hear that performance from time to time, because I like it so much. Furthermore this recording is absolutly stunning. Mrs Nilsson, not Miss.

[999parzival]

Puedo entender algunas reservas pero me pregunto si los que dicen estas cosas han estado en una sala de opera escuchando a Nilsson en directo. Yo prefiero a muchas y desde muchos puntos de vista...y sin embargo la magia era tal que cuando estaba ella todo desaparecía y era la reina absoluta. Que no ha sido una cantante para soñar? Anda que la isolde con Bohm en orange no fue para soñar....

[spizzell1]

This lady is absolutly amazing!! One of the greatest of all times.

[MastersoftheOpera]

I adore Birgit but why do you keep posting famous sopranos singing arias that are outside their usual repertoire ? Nilsson was a glorious Turandot & I consider her the best but her strongest repertoire was WAGNER. Her Brunnhilde & Isolde were unrivalled in her time - the 1960's. She's mainly a Wagnerian soprano although she sang terrific Salome & Elektra.

[angryjalapeno]

@MastersoftheOpera, based on her recordings, Nilsson is still unrivalled today.

[Webarton]

THIS IS SO BEAUTIFUL.

[loboestepario24]

Nilsson is a Godess standing next to Flagstad, Varnay and Mödl the top of a rock in the Valhalla!

[anoldnightengale]

I think you did well by including her. She has the most powerful voice of ANY soprano ever and it is not strained or forced. (I am sure memories of Ms. Nilsson are the reason so many older gentleman would remark to me "Don't you need bigger... lungs to sing opera?" LOL! (I am a very slight , read diminuitive chested, Soprano but I have a big voice for my size :) She is what the general public thinks of when the think "Opera SInger".

[petereuropa]

I must say: why didn't the producers put Mr Jussi a bit more close the microphone? He was more powerful than this recording.

Mrs Birgit = beyond compare.

[yodavidnavarro]

Because Nilsson was even at a longer distance. Miss Nilsson voice should be far from the mikes because her density was unhuman!

[ebony1911]

Nilsson won over the New York public. She never lost it. Nobody who heard the Nilsson voice live in its prime will ever forget it. It cannot be surpassed. i am one of those passionate Nilssonians. Never have I been so moved by an operatic voice. Thank God that the cassette had just been invented when I went to Viet-Nam. Nilsson, Dionne Warwick and the Columbia Record Club got me threw the war..

[ManagerGuy1]

Birgit IS at least in the top 3 female voices of all time! She's right there with Callas and whoever you place 3rd. I wish you had Turandot up for her, for those who have not heard her before. Thank you for this.

[Operanut9]

Manager,

I agree she would have to be in just about anybody's top three. I for one, though, would drop Callas from that category and place Victoria de los Angeles with whomever someone chooses as third. In an Opera News survey for conductors, composers, singers, etc. their choices were Nilsson and Flagstad. Callas was hardly mentioned as one of the great VOICES.

[ManagerGuy1]

Perhaps you make a stronger case - but I would suspect we could find numerous opera folks in the know who would put Callas on this short list. For me Callas is just a personal choice for my one good ear that I have left (the one i listen to opera with) - but I respect your comment and would not disagree re; Victoria de los Angeles, a wonderful God-given voice!

[kgarmaker123]

Callas should be in anyone;s short list. She made opera into something else. She affected everyone's perceptions of singing, of music, of operatic roles.

[Operanut9]

I think the case for Callas is always overstated. She certainly has had no impact on my appreciation of opera. In fact, if I had only Callas to choose from, I would find opera deserving of its caricatures. She did NOT influence all opera or ALL opera goers. She brought some of the old "coloratura" roles back into prominence. That was a great contribution, yes, but she became a cult figure because of her death and jet-set style of living.

[kgarmaker123]

Fine you are entitled to my opinion and I mine, ..... its interesting that more than fifty years from, her operatic triump her recordings are selling the way they do.. They speak to people. She made opera into something meaningful not jst a lot of yelling.

[CatalinaDM56]

Well, then.

[yodavidnavarro]

I'd choose Leontyne Price, Kirsten Flagstad and Montserrat Cballe!

[Operanut9]

She was the greatest. In mentioning "golden age" singers of the second half of the XXth century, Schuyler Chapin designated Sutherland,Tebaldi,corelli, Horne,Vickers,Tucker, Pavarotti & Domingo, but carefully placed Nilsson in her oown category, saying, " without a moment's hesitation one of the most exciting voices of this or any other generation...she was--is-- her own Golden Age."

[OperaBaritoneJoe]

her voice is huge

[Piacevole]

I think this version is her best In Questa Reggia.

[TreblesBasses]

THIS WAS A VOICE FROM HEAVEN!

[mozzrt]

i am sorry that you should have chosen this version. Rathr Brunnhilde or some other of her Turandots or Elektra.

[raigekimaru]

5:18; Bjorling just got OWNED!!

[nclysander]

Truth.

[merefoix]

Hehe.

[Solison]

Yeah she was a real tenor killer, Huge power.

[raigekimaru]

lol, never heard that one before. Corelli was the only one who could keep up with her.

[polemius01]

Many thanks for putting this project on Youtube. And what a first viewing for me! Nilsson is unsurpassed in much of her repetoire. I'm listening to Bohm's "Elektra" right now, and although I have great admiration for Inge Borkh, I can't listen to here without "hearing" how Nilsson does it on her recording.

[Ranicus]

Alle Kritik mag berechtigt sein, aber.....

Ihre Stimme war so beeindruckend, so machtvoll (im besten Sinne) und mit einer Nachhaltigkeit, sie ging einem nicht mehr aus dem Ohr.

Aber man tut ihr bitter Unrecht, wenn man sie beschränkt auf dies, denn sie hatte auch wunderbare leise Töne!

[100Singers]

Vielen Dank für diesen Kommentar. Es steht mir als Nichtsänger auch nicht zu, eine Kritik an Künstlern zu üben, aber ich halte es für durchaus legitim, auf Besonderheiten und Fakten aufmerksam zu machen. Liebe Grüße von Mike

[LLehmannfan]

Die Nilsson war wirklich ein stimmliches Phänomen. Ein solches Instrument, wie es ihre Stimme war, von Natur aus zu besitzen ist eine höchst seltene Gabe. In der Ära der Schallplattenaufnahmen gab es vor ihr nur Kirsten Flagstad. Und nach ihr wird es wohl lange keine solche Naturstimme mehr geben...

[meltzerboy]

I agree there is this quality called sheer voice that, surprisingly, few singers possess. Apart from perfect technique or passionate expression, it signifies raw material combined with cultivated artistry. I think of Melba, for example, who critics agreed had "voice," even those critics who preferred Tetrazzini's "technique." Nilsson had it, so did Sutherland, Flagstad, Ponselle. It's a majestic force of nature not given to many.

[meltzerboy]

The sheer voice quality includes stamina as well. Nilsson once remarked that to sing Wagner, a singer must be built like a football player.

[AbsGuy]

She was one of the 10 great women who sang around the world. I heard her last "Ring" at the Met and her farewell in NYC. Happily I met her once after that concert. She was radiant, powerful, magnificent. She could sing with great power, great tenderness (listen to some of her Verdi and Puccini). She inspired everyone who worked with her.

[Operanut9]

@Greatfan

Doubts about Nilsson???This is unbelievable. She reigned supreme over the post WWII era,. she was the star of the MET and its highest paid singer. Probably the most decorated soprano of the century and the only post WWII singer to be compared to the "Golden Age" voices. Doubts? Incomprehensible.

[bobzeschin]

A much less painful memory of BN is the huge "RITORNA VINCITRICE" banner my best friend and I (actually, his seamstress mother) made for her 1979 Met "comeback" concert. (It's shown on page 57 of "My Life in Pictures.") Our pals who hung it backstage said they'd never seen a diva so touched by anything. She joked to us later that she 'd use it as a beach towel, but friends of hers told us she kep[t it ever afterward on the piano in the music room of her home in Vastra Karup.

[bobzeschin]

Another memory from my days as a Met super: I once played the guard stationed at the bottom of the staircase in the second act of "Turandot," with Nilsson singing directly into my right ear from no more than ten feet away, & an equidistant Franco Corelli blasting away straight into my left ear for the entire act. My hearing didn't return to normal until the following day, & I never volunteered for that spot on stage again!

[meltzerboy]

If one must lose one's hearing, I can't think of a more wonderful way to do it!

[jtmcg]

Amen to that. Hearing those 2 in the Riddle Scene is one of the high points of my Met experiences.

[bobzeschin]

HH--Sehr couragiert of you to admit your reservations about BN. She knew she had a "white" (vibrato-free) voice & worked hard to achieve as much vocal color as she could. She may have been at her best when the part required more vocal steel than gold, but there'll never be another Elektra or Brunnhilde like her. I heard everything she did in her prime, & I'm so grateful for what she was that I'm happy to overlook what she wasn't.

[100Singers]

"Grateful for what she was, overlook what she wasn´t", yes, that´s a very good description and I like it much. I share the same feelings for some singers. Thanks bobzeschin.

[meltzerboy]

Continued--Nor did Nilsson have great flexibility of voice compared to Lili Lehman, Nordica, or Rethberg. I think what Nilsson had was an amalgam of the above vocal attributes to a degree sufficient to raise her stature as a singer and artist to the highest level.

[ebony1911]

You heard Rethberg, Lehmann and Nordica? WOW!! hOW OLD ARE YOU? EBONY iVORY

[meltzerboy]

I'm 150 years old! Seriously though, have you ever listened to recordings? I was comparing the records of Rethberg, Lehmann, and Nordica to Nilsson's. I also heard her live, as I gather you have too. She was phenomenal, no doubt about it. My comment says this, at the same time as it points out that some of these other artists had qualities Nilsson did not have to the same degree. No singer has everything. Nilsson, however, had enough of a combination of vocal attributes to make her supreme.

[meltzerboy]

What did Nilsson have that puts her in the forefront of Wagnerian sopranos? Not the most beautiful tone--it was sharp and clear, not rich and sumptuous like Flagstad's. Not the most voluminous voice--Farrell's was bigger. Not the most passionate--Leider's and Lotte Lehmann's voices were more so. Not the most versatile--Lili Lehmann and Nordica surpassed her in that regard. Not the most subtle interpreter either though she surpassed Flagstad in interpretive ability.

[mrrk]

So true. A big sound but no warmth or feeling. Very cold esp when she sang Italian roles like Tosca or Aida.

[lumosmaxima]

Nilsson was a vocal miracle. Certainly she wasn't a bel canto expert (one could imagine the e-flat Lucia gives at the end of spargi done by her. im sure she'll kill Arturo with that E-flat!) but what's important for me is that she acts. I don't care much about the stranio thing (actually I hear stranitor- I thought it was a synonym -_-") but she has so much ooomph in her characters, although I've only heard her in Macbeth and Turandot.

[jtmcg]

Nilsson in person was a phenomenon. Arguments can be made about the subtlety of interpretation, phrasing etc. Mostly I don't buy it. Are there others with more subtlety? Sure. But her interpretations for the most part were more than adequate and the voice in person would leave you gasping. Opera is voice and theater. Nilsson had abundance of voice and to my mind more than adequate theatrical ability. She had to be heard in person to get the full impact of her performances.

[meltzerboy]

I think your commentary applies to Sutherland as well as Nilsson, especially the last statement.

[jtmcg]

I totally agree. As a matter of fact I was going to mention Sutherland as another example in my comment. I heard her in Puritani, Lucia and Sonnambula and was thrilled. I also heard her in Traviata and Rigoletto and was not as impressed. Sempre Libera was impressive, Addio del passato not so much.

[sospello]

Justly admired for a commanding voice and memorable assumptions of vocally demanding roles.