Swedish operatic soprano (1934–2022)

Birgit Nordin (22 February 1934 – 7 April 2022) was a Swedish operatic soprano. She was a member of the Royal Swedish Opera from 1958 to 1986, and regularly appeared at the Drottningholm Festival where she performed twelve major Mozart roles, including Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro and Pamina in The Magic Flute. She also performed internationally, appearing in the Edinburgh International Festival, Glyndebourne Festival, Copenhagen and others. She became known as the Queen of the Night in Trollflöjten, Ingmar Bergman's film adaptation of Mozart's opera.

Contents

• 1 Life and career
  • 1.1 Private life
• 2 Recordings
  • 2.1 Compilations
  • 2.2 Video
• 3 References
• 4 Further reading
• 5 External links

Life and career

Born in Sangis, Norrbotten, Nordin attended school in Haparanda. She attended the Royal College of Music in Stockholm from 1956 to 1958, studying under Britta von Vegesack. Later she trained with Lina Pagliughi in Italy.

Nordin joined the company of the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm, where she worked from 1958 to 1986. Her debut was as Oscar in Verdi's Masked Ball on 21 October 1958 and she was part of the company that visited London and the Edinburgh International Festival in 1960. Starting in 1960, she regularly appeared at the Drottningholm Festival where she performed twelve major Mozart roles, including Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro and Pamina in The Magic Flute. In 1968, she participated in the world premiere of Franz Berwald's Drottningen av Golconda, with Elisabeth Söderström in the *le role.

Abroad, Nordin appeared at the 1968 Glyndebourne Festival as Blonde in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail. She performed the role of Jenny Smith in Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny in Copenhagen in 1970, and appeared on Danish television as Lulu, also singing in Bach's St Matthew P*ion in Berlin that year. Other roles included Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto, Rosina in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia and Mélisande in Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande.

Nordin held the Christina Nilsson Fellowship twice, and was appointed a Hovsångerska (court singer) in 1973. She appeared in the 1975 film Trollflöjten, Mozart's opera film adaption of Mozart's opera sung in Swedish, directed by Ingmar Bergman as the Queen of the Night.

After retiring from the stage, Nordin undertook some teaching and stage direction.

Private life

Since 1977, Nordin was married to the Swedish b*–baritone Jerker Arvidson: (1939–2007).

She died on 7 April 2022 at age 88.

Recordings

• Lars-Erik Larsson: Förklädd Gud = (God in disguise):: lyric suite, op. 24:; Symphony No. 3 in C minor, op. 34 (in Swedish), Bis, 1989, OCLC:25890100
• Monteverdi: Geistliche Konzerte, Archiv Produktion, 1973, OCLC:955615313
• Verdi: Rigoletto, Naxos Digital Services Ltd., 2005, OCLC:594082648
• Carl Michael Bellman (in Swedish), EMI, 1983, OCLC:13225300
• Laci Boldemann: Lieder der Vergänglichkeit, opus 8; Epitaphs, opus 10; Notturno, opus 14, HMV, OCLC:900326417
• Moses Pergament:: Den judiska sången, Caprice, OCLC:459267228

Compilations

• Svensk operaantologi. Sida 17. Sida 17 (in Swedish), EMI Svenska AB, 1976, OCLC:11489821
• Svensk operaantologi. Sida 18. Sida 18 (in Swedish), EMI Svenska AB, 1976, OCLC:11489839
• Mozart at the Royal Swedish Opera, 1952–1957 (in Swedish), Caprice Records, 2006, OCLC:811334216

Video

• Bergman, Ingmar; Schikaneder, Emanuel; Cold, Ulrik; Urrila, Irma; Hagegård, Håkan; Erikson, Elisabeth; Köstlinger, Josef; Sædén, Erik; Nordin, Birgit; Nykvist, Sven; Lundgren, Siv; Criterion Collection, Trollflöjten = The magic flute, , ISBN:978-1-68143-557-2, OCLC:1083532495

References

Further reading

• *mings, D. M. (2000). "NORDIN Birgit". International Who's Who in Music and Musicians' Directory (in the Cl*ical and Light Cl*ical Fields). International Who's Who in Cl*ical Music. Vol.:1: 2000/2001 (Seventeenth:ed.). International Biographical Centre. p.:471. ISBN:978-0-948875-53-3. Retrieved 12 April 2022.

External links

• Official website archived on 2013-06-10
• Birgit Nordin discography at Discogs
• Birgit Nordin at IMDb
• Birgit Nordin (recordings) muziekweb.nl