Universal's Eloquence Releases Rare Archived Recordings

Complete track listings and album notes for each release
can be found after the jump.

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Régine Crespin:
The larger-than-life Régine Crespin, made only one song recital record for Decca, of music by Schumann, Wolf, Debussy and Poulenc. This is the first time the entire recital has been made available on CD. As her career progressed, Crespin became associated with certain roles – Kundry, Sieglinde, Brünnhilde, Tosca, the Marschallin – but she was prodigiously versatile, thanks to her years in the French provinces. An intelligent singer who understood how to make the texts count, Crespin also had tremendous success in non-operatic repertory. Her 1963 Decca recording, with conductor Ernest Ansermet, of Berlioz’s Les Nuits d'été and Ravel’s Shéhérazade, is regarded as among the best available. In its original French, her candid and entertaining autobiography is called La vie et l'amour d'une femme, which is also the French translation of Schumann's song cycle Frauenliebe und -leben. Indeed, Lieder by Schumann and Wolf were important parts of her recital repertory, and she brought the same depth of meaning to their German texts as she did to her Wagnerian roles. Of course French, being her native language, evoked a most immediate and intimate response from this singer. This release marks the launch of an Eloquence series of notable recitals of songs and opera arias by some of the great voices of Decca and Deutsche Grammophon.

Debussy:
Trois chansons de Bilitis

Poulenc:
Chanson d'Orkenise
Hotel
La Courte Paille: Le Carafon
La Courte Paille: 3. La Reine de coeur
Chansons villageoises: Les gars qui vont ŕ la fęte
Fętes galantes

Schumann:
Gedichte der Königin Maria Stuart, Op. 135

Wolf, H:
In der Frühe (No. 24 from Mörike-Lieder)
Der Gärtner (No. 17 from Mörike-Lieder)
Das verlassene Mägdlein (No. 7 from Mörike-Lieder)
Ich hab in Penna einen Liebsten (No. 46 from Italienisches Liederbuch)
Anakreons Grab (No. 29 from Goethe-Lieder)
Verschwiegene Liebe (No. 3 from Eichendorff-Lieder)

Régine Crespin (soprano)
John Wustman (piano)

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Birgit Nilsson:
Birgit Nilsson. Richard Wagner. It was an operatic marriage made in heaven that lasted for over twenty years and, thanks to recordings, continues to thrill music lovers around the world. She sang her first Wagnerian part in Stockholm. It was Senta in Der fliegende Holländer. It was greeted rapturously and throughout her long career it was for her Wagner and Strauss roles that she was most noted. Many of the greatest recordings of music dramas and operas by these composers have featured her, and many appear on Decca. However, she also made two Wagner records for Philips – one with Leif Segerstam in 1974 of extended scenes from Walküre and Parsifal, another, in 1972, with Colin Davis of the Wesendonck-Lieder and extracts from Der fliegende Holländer, Rienzi and the little-known early Wagner opera, Die Feen (The Fairies). Also included are scenes from Tristan und Isolde, one of her great calling cards and of which she made at least two live recordings, one studio recording with Georg Solti, and another of scenes (with Grace Hoffman as Brangäne) with Hans Knappertsbusch.

Nilsson’s voice had the clear, silvery sound that seems to be characteristic of Scandinavian singers. It was rock solid, encompassed over two octaves, and was perfectly even, top to bottom. It was also enormous. Especially in the upper part of the voice it could take on a laser-like quality that simply sliced through the densest orchestral sound and speared listeners to the backs of their seats. That meant the great moments of a Wagnerian opera were truly monumental – a surging orchestra and a soprano who dominated everything, combined into an overwhelming climax as Wagner must have heard in his dreams.

Here is a snapshot of some of those great moments, captured on record, and bringing together three complete LPs – two made for Philips (Segerstam, Davis) and one for Decca (Knappertsbusch).

Schlafst du, Gast? Ich bin's! (from Die Walküre)
Dies alles – hab’ ich nun geträumt? (from Parsifal)
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Leif Segerstam

Gerechter Gott! (from Rienzi)
London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Colin Davis

Johohoe! Traft ihr das Schiff im Meere an 'Senta's Ballad' (from Der fliegende Holländer)
The John Alldis Choir & London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Colin Davis

Weh mir, so nah (from Die Feen)
Wesendonck-Lieder (5)
London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Colin Davis

Tristan und Isolde: Prelude to Act 1
Wie lachend sie mir Lieder singen (from Tristan und Isolde)
Grace Hoffman (Brangäne)
Wiener Philharmoniker, Hans Knappertsbusch

Tristan und Isolde: Prelude & Liebestod
Wiener Philharmoniker, Hans Knappertsbusch

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Elisabeth Söderström:
Elisabeth Söderström was a born storyteller. She told stories not just in music, but also peppered her recitals on stage with tales and anecdotes. It made her a perfect interpreter for the collection of children’s songs by Mussorgsky, Prokofiev and Gretchaninov she recorded with Vladimir Ashkenazy in 1977–78 which appear on CD2 of this set, the first (LP) issue greeted with enthusiasm by Gramophone reviewer W.S.M. with the words ‘the best record of song to appear in 1979’. It later went on to win the 1979 Gramophone’s Solo Vocal Award. But there was more: a selection of Tchaikovsky songs over two LPs; a substantial survey of the Rachmaninov songs (‘one of the gramophone’s crown jewels’ wrote John Steane in Gramophone) as well as the complete Sibelius songs.

Born in Stockholm on 7 May 1927 to a Russian mother and Swedish father, Söderström she was a talented recitalist, as much in demand in the concert hall as she was in the opera theatre. From 1991–96 she also directed the Drottingholm Festival Opera with much success. The two LPs of Tchaikovsky songs were issued in part by Decca on CD and this is their first complete release in this format. Overshadowed by his orchestral works, they are nonetheless absolute gems, with their piano parts of almost orchestral scope. Ashkenazy’s is, too, the disembodied voice that speaks a few of Pushkin’s lines in the early setting of Zemfira's song.

‘Söderström came to be known internationally in the late 1950s,’ wrote John Steane, ‘and over the next three decades, on until her retirement from singing in the early 1990s she never “blotted her copybook”. She neither sought nor won cheap success.’ Söderström passed away in Stockholm on 20 November 2009, aged 82, from complications from a stroke.

This release marks the launch of an Eloquence series of notable recitals of songs and opera arias by some of the great voices of Decca and Deutsche Grammophon.
Gramophone Magazine


Grechaninov:
The Lane – Five Children’s Songs, Op. 89

Mussorgsky:
The Nursery

Prokofiev:
The Ugly Duckling, Op. 18

Tchaikovsky:
The Cuckoo, Op. 54 No. 8
Evening, Op. 27, No. 4
The Nightingale Op. 60 No. 4
Last Night Op. 60 No. 1
None but the lonely heart, Op. 6 No. 6
Lullaby, Op. 16 No. 1
Otchevo? (Why?), Op. 6 No. 5
Strashnaya minuta (The Fearful Moment), Op. 28 No. 6
Den' li tsarit? (Does the day reign?), Op. 47 No. 6
Spring, Op 54 No. 9
Simple Words, Op. 60, No. 5
Mezza notte
Sérénade, Op. 65 No. 1
Déception, Op. 65 No. 2
Qu'importe que l'hiver, Op. 65 No. 4
Les Larmes, Op. 65 No. 5
Zakatilos solntse (The sun has set), Op. 73 No. 4
Kak nad goratcheďou zoloď, Op. 25 No. 2
Moy geni, moy angel, moy drug (My genius, my angel, my friend)
Pesn' Zemfiri (Zemfira's song)
Do not believe, my friend Op. 6 No. 1
Zabďt tak skoro (So soon forgotten)
Oh! Chante encore op.16 No.4
Spirit my heart away
Why did I dream of you?, Op. 28 No. 3
To bilo ranneyu vesnoy (It happened in the early spring), Op. 38 No. 2
Sred' shumnogo bala (Amid the din of the ball), Op. 38 No. 3
If only I had known, Op.47, No.1
Was I not a blade of grass?, Op. 47 No. 7
My little garden, Op. 54 No. 4
Do not ask, Op. 57 No. 3
This, our first reunion, Op. 63 No. 4
O ditya, pod okoshkom tvoim (Serenade), Op. 63 No. 6
Rondel, Op. 65 No. 6
We sat with you, Op. 73 No. 1
Behind the window, Op 60 No. 10

Elisabeth Söderström (soprano)
Vladimir Ashkenazy (piano)


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Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau:
‘You sing as if you had written it yourself!’ Jean Cocteau once told Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. This anthology of lieder by Brahms and Schumann is a prime example of the great singer doing just that, mining every nuance of emotion from a song while, at the same time, sounding as spontaneous and free as if he were making it up on the spot. One of the hallmarks of Fischer-Dieskau’s legacy is the ease with which he creates the spell of each individual song, drawing the listener – apparently effortlessly – into the drama created by the words and the music.

Fischer-Dieskau recorded extensively for Deutsche Grammophon, and the bulk of his archive has been mined on CDs. These recordings, however, are rarities. The songs on CD1 appeared only as part of the Fischer-Dieskau Edition for his 75th birthday. The Brahms songs on CD2 make their first appearance on CD. And the 1957 recording of Schumann’s Dichterliebe with his long-time pianist Jörg Demus, only appeared as part of Deutsche Grammophon’s centenary edition. CD2 includes the Four Duets, Op. 28 in which Fischer-Dieskau is partnered by an artist not heard enough on records, the contralto Kerstin Meyer.

This release marks the launch of an Eloquence series of notable recitals of songs and opera arias by some of the great voices of Decca and Deutsche Grammophon.


Brahms:
Vier ernste Gesänge, Op. 121
Sommerabend, Op. 85 No. 1
Mondenschein, Op. 85 No. 2
Es liebt sich so lieblich, Op. 71 No. 1
Meerfahrt, Op. 96 No. 4
Es schauen die Blumen, Op. 96 No. 3
Der Tod, das ist die kühle Nacht, Op. 96 No. 1
Mit vierzig Jahren, Op. 94 No. 1
Steig auf, geliebter Schatten, Op. 94 No. 2
Mein Herz ist schwer, Op. 94 No. 3
Kein Haus, keine Heimat, Op. 94 No. 5
Herbstgefühl
Alte Liebe, Op. 72 No. 1
Abenddämmerung, Op. 49 No. 5
Heimweh, Op. 63 No. 8
Auf dem Kirchhofe, Op. 105 No. 4
Verzagen, Op. 72 No. 4
Regenlied (No. 3 from Acht Lieder und Gesänge, Op. 59)
Nachklang (No. 4 from Acht Lieder und Gesänge, Op. 59)
Fruhlingslied, Op. 85, No. 5
Auf dem See (No. 2 from Acht Lieder und Gesänge, Op. 59)
Feldeinsamkeit, Op. 86 No. 2
An eine Äolsharfe, Op. 19 No. 5
Der Frühling, Op. 6 No. 2
Wie die Wolke nach der Sonne (No. 5 from Sechs Gesänge, Op. 6)
Treue Liebe, Op. 7, No. 1
Heimkehr, Op. 7 No. 6
Juchhe! (No. 4 from Sechs Gesänge, Op. 6)
Nachwirkung, Op. 6 No. 3
Mondnacht
Ein Sonett, Op. 14 No. 4 (Herder)
Ständchen, Op. 14 No. 7
Vor dem Fenster Op. 14/1
Scheiden und Meiden, Op. 19, No 2
Gang zur Liebsten, Op. 14 No. 6
Von verwundeten Knaben, Op. 14 No. 2
Murrays Ermordung, Op. 14 No. 3
Sehnsucht 'Mein Schatz ist nicht da', Op. 14 No. 8
Volkslied
Duette (4), Op. 28

Schumann:
Dichterliebe, Op. 48

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (baritone)
Kerstin Meyer (contralto)
Jörg Demus (piano)

Happy Birthday: Birgit Nilsson

La Nilsson singing Wagner's Isolde at the MET Gala 1983

"The celebrated Swedish dramatic soprano who specialized in operatic and symphonic works, would have turned 93 today. Her voice was noted for its overwhelming force, bountiful reserves of power and the gleaming brilliance and clarity in the upper register. Birgit Nilsson came from a rural background and had to work hard to gain acceptance in the world of music, but she made so strong an imprint on many roles that they came to be known as the "Nilsson repertory". She sang the operas of Richard Strauss and made a specialty of Puccini's Turandot, but it was the music of Wagner that made her career; her command of his music was comparable to that

With her dog Nalle in Sweden

of Kirsten Flagstad, who owned the Wagner repertory at the Metropolitan Opera during the years before World War II. At her peak, Nilsson astounded audiences in live performance with the unforced power of her voice, which cut through dense orchestration, and with her remarkable breath control, which allowed her to hold notes for a remarkably long time. Her interpretive powers grew as her career developed, and she became a moving artist as well as a vocal phenomenon. Among colleagues, she also became renowned for her playful sense of humor."

Bing Gala at the MET 1972

"Una partita a poker" La Fanciulla del West (w/Andrea Mongelli)

"Starke Scheite, schichtet mir dort" Götterdämmerung

"La fatal pietra..." Aida (w/Luigi Ottolini & Grace Hoffman)

"Dich teure halle" Tannhäuser

"Mario, mario, mario!" Tosca (w/Franco Corelli)

"Der Engel" Wesendonck Lieder

"Ah! Perfido"

"Una macchia" Macbeth

"O Don fatale" Don Carlo

"Du wolltest mich nicht deinen Mund küssen lassen" Salome

"Crudele!...Non mi dir" Don Giovanni


A full biography and funny anecdotes are after the jump.

Birgit Nilsson was born Birgit Märta Svensson on May 17, 1918, to Nils Peter and Justine (Paulsson) Svensson on a farm at Västra Karup in Skåne, Sweden. 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 Båstad, and in 1941, with Joseph Hislop and Arne Sunnegard at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm. 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 almost killed me", she said. "The second was almost as bad."

"Var det en dröm?" by Sibelius


In 1946, Nilsson made her debut at the Royal Opera in Stockholm with only three days' notice, replacing the ailing Agathe in Carl Maria von Weber's Der Freischütz. Conductor Leo Blech wasn't very kind to her and - as she wrote in her autobiography - she even contemplated suicide after the performance.
In 1947 she claimed national attention as Verdi's Lady Macbeth under Fritz Busch. A wealth of parts followed, from 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, Aïda, Lisa, Tosca, Venus, Sieglinde, Senta and the Marschallin, one of her favourite roles (though she later lamented that nobody ever asked her to undertake it), all sung in Swedish.

Under Fritz Busch's tutelage her career took wing. He was instrumental in securing her first important engagement outside Sweden, as Elettra 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 Festival of 1954. Later she returned as Sieglinde, Brünnhilde and Isolde until 1969, all to universal acclaim.

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 370th(?) season at La Scala as Turandot in 1958. She became the second non-Italian (after Maria Callas) ever granted the privilege of opening a season at La Scala. 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 under Charles Mackerras with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in the all-Wagner concert that opened the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House, in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II in 1973. You can listen to the concert on australianscreen online. She also gave the first lieder recital at the Opera House, accompanied by Geoffrey Parsons.

Birgit Nilsson was widely known as the leading Wagnerian soprano of her time, the successor to the great Norwegian soprano Kirsten Flagstad, particularly in the role of 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." Her career was long and distinguished and continued into the 1980s.

Nilsson was suspicious of opera's recent youth culture and often remarked on the premature destruction of young voices brought on by overambitious career planning. "Directors and managers don't care about their futures", she once said. "They will just get another young person when this one goes bad." In today's opera culture, the best managed voices tend to mature in the singer's 40s and begin to deteriorate during the 50s. Yet at 61, when most singers hang onto whatever career remains through less taxing recitals with piano and discreet downward transpositions of key, Nilsson sang a New York concert performance of Strauss and Wagner that met both composers head-on. "Ms. Nilsson did not sound young", Will Crutchfield once wrote in The New York Times. "Soft and low notes were often precarious; sustained tones were not always steady." He continued: "The wonderful thing is that she doesn't let this bother her. There was never a sense of distress or worry."

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, Birgit Nilsson's high notes were sometimes compared to those of the Broadway belter Ethel Merman. One high C rendered in a "Turandot" performance in the outdoor Arena di Verona in Italy led citizenry beyond the walls to think that a fire alarm had been set off. Once urged to follow Nilsson in the same role at the Metropolitan Opera, the eminent soprano Leonie Rysanek refused.

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 substituted by a historical performance of Fidelio starring Christa Ludwig). Nilsson recovered to sing the broadcast performance of Elektra on February 27. More seriously, in March 1974 Nilsson fell and dislocated her shoulder during a rehearsal of Götterdämmerung. Although Nilsson was 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 March 8 opening night is reprinted in the Metropolitan Opera Archives.

Beginning at the summer of 1968 at the Bayreuth Festival, Nilsson was obsessively stalked by actress and model Nell Theobald until Theobald's tragic suicide nine years later in 1977. Nilson recounted her experiences with Theobald at length in her memoir La Nilsson where she referred to Theobald solely as "Miss N.". The stalking incident was later featured in Opera News magazine and The New York Times.

Birgit Nilsson was known for her witty one-liners:

When asked what was the most important requirement for a soprano to sing Isolde, Nilsson said, "a comfortable pair of shoes."

When Nilsson was asked if she thought Joan Sutherland's famous bouffant hairdo was real, she answered: "I don't know. I haven't pulled it yet."

Nilsson called Turandot, one of the most punishing roles in the soprano repertory, her "vacation role."
Rudolf Bing made a ritual joke of getting on his knees every time Nilsson returned to the Met. When he did this after having been knighted by Queen Elizabeth, Nilsson said, "You do that much better since you practiced for the queen."

Bing asked Nilsson to sing the final scene from Salome at his farewell gala in 1972. As an added inducement, he said that she could have his head on a platter. Nilsson replied, "Oh, that's not necessary, Mr. Bing. I will use my imagination."

Nilsson did not get along with the 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 fabulous Metropolitan Opera fees?" Nilsson replied, "No, these are very ordinary fake pearls bought with your lousy Vienna Staatsoper fees." When Nilsson first arrived at the Met to rehearse the production of Die Walkure 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."

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 Nilsson outlasted Corelli on the high C, Corelli stormed off to Bing during the next intermission and said 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 Nilsson but he was so delighted with the idea that he told her about Bing's suggestion. She then cabled Bing, informing him that she had to cancel the next two tour Turandot performances because she had contracted rabies.

Once, when Nilsson was unhappy with something at the Met, she told Bing, "You know, when the birds are not happy, they do not sing."

Others got in their own quips about Nilsson. Bing was once asked if Nilsson was difficult to work with. "On the contrary," said Bing, "she's very easy to work with. You put money in, and beautiful sounds come out."

When Nilsson started singing Aida at the Met, soprano Zinka Milanov was miffed; Aida had 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."

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 was also too proud to make outright demands. 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." Now in control, she would be begged to accept what she desired in the first place.

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." When Nilsson was preparing her taxes and was asked if she had any dependents, she replied, "Yes, just one, Rudolf Bing."

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). When on some occasion Herbert von Karajan urged a retake 'and this time with our hearts - that's where your wallet has its place', Birgit Nilsson replied 'I'm glad to know that we have at least one thing in common, Maëstro von Karajan'! 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 conductorial change of heart. After a tiff with Hans Knappertsbusch, Nilsson reported: "He called me by a name that begins with "A" and ends with 'hole'".

As Oren Brown says in his vocal technique book, although not expected from a Wagnerian singer, Birgit Nilsson would warm up her voice by singing the Queen of the Night's arias from Mozart's Die Zauberflöte.

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 Italian operas such as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni.

Nilsson recorded all of her major roles. Partly because of her availability to play Brünnhilde, Decca Records undertook the audacious and extremely expensive project of making the first 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.

Though a frequent visitor to the Metropolitan Opera, Birgit 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. Nilsson's 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."

Birgit 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, as Verdi's Lady Macbeth, Leonore in Beethoven's Fidelio, and both Venus and Elisabeth in Wagner's Tannhäuser. She memorably appeared as replacement Sieglinde to Rita Hunter's Brünnhilde in the 1970s. She appeared 232 times at the Vienna State Opera from 1954–82, 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.

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. She has received the Illis Quorum gold medal, today the highest award that can be conferred upon a Swedish citizen by the Government of Sweden. In 1988, the American Scandinavian Foundation named their prize for promising young American opera singers the Birgit Nilsson Prize. Nilsson personally chaired several of the competitions.

Birgit Nilsson died aged 87, on Christmas Day, 2005 in her home at Bjärlöv, a small village near Kristianstad in Skåne in the same county where she was born. She was survived by her husband Bertil Niklasson (who died in March 2007), a former veterinary student whom she had met on a train and married in 1948. They had no children.


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 Birgit Nilsson Prize was founded by Birgit Nilsson herself. The foundation said that Nilsson had chosen the first winner, to be announced in early 2009. On 20 February 2009, Spanish tenor Placido Domingo was announced as the inaugural recipient of the prize, which carried with it a cash award of $1,000,000. The first award ceremony took place in the Royal Swedish Opera on 13 October 2009. King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden personally handed over the prize to the designated winner. A jury has been set up by the foundation to make recommendations for future prizes. The second winner of the Birgit Nilsson prize was Riccardo Muti who will receive the award in Stockholm on October 13th 2011.

On April 6, 2011, the Bank of Sweden announced that Nilsson's portrait will feature on the 500 kronor banknote, beginning in 2014-15. She was the recipient of the Sonning Award (1966; Denmark).
[Source]