La Nilsson: My Life in Opera
by Birgit Nilsson
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Book Summary Information
Author: Birgit NilssonTranslator: Doris Jung Popper
Contributor: Georg Solti
Contributor: Peggy Tuller
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2007-05-31
ISBN: 1555536700
Number of pages: 356
Publisher: Northeastern
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9781555536701
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
- Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices
Book Reviews of La Nilsson: My Life in Opera
Book Review: Nilsson writing "sounds" like Nilsson speaking.
Summary: 5 Stars
Birgit Nilsson wrote like she spoke! I couldn't believe how well this came across even in an English translation. It was like listening to her in Robert Merrill's documentary, I Live For Art -- Tosca.
No false modesty here! And, why would we expect that? She was tremendous! Even so, she freely relates the rare occasions when she flopped. So you get the warts as well as the success.
As other reviewers noted, this is pretty much loaded with documentary of Nilsson's performances here, there and everywhere.
But, it's not just a travelogue. You will find lots on information on how she approached various roles.
On the "dirt": Nillson dispels the legend that Corelli bit her. He probably wanted to, thought about it, fantasized about it, but in the end, he didn't do it. Good thinking on his part. God knows what she would have done to him.
Summary of La Nilsson: My Life in Opera
First published to wide acclaim in Sweden (1995) and in Germany (1997), the autobiography of opera legend Birgit Nilsson (1918-2005) is finally available in an English translation. From her humble roots in rural Sweden to her artistic triumphs in Stockholm, Bayreuth, Milan, and the Metropolitan Opera House, this candid and utterly charming memoir reveals the personality behind one of the great voices of the past century.Gracefully weaving together the private and professional, Nilsson chronicles her idyllic childhood in Vastra Karup, the early recognition of her unique natural abilities, and her first tentative steps into a wider artistic world. After achieving national acclaim in Verdi's Lady Macbeth, she went on to establish herself as the dominant Wagnerian soprano of her generation, appearing at the Bayreuth and Munich Festivals, and the Vienna and Bavarian State Opera Houses, creating, along the way, definitive performances of Sieglinde, Bruennhilde, and Isolde. The book details her rise to international stardom with behind-the-scenes recollections of her phenomenal triumph as Turandot at La Scala in 1958 and her headline-making Met premier in Tristan und Isolde the following year.
Nilsson's long and illustrious career (she performed until 1984), her celebrated professional and personal relationships, her friendships and rivalries, are all recounted with a down-to-earth wit and an engagingly odd admixture of ego and selfeffacement. She tells it all: the legendary quips, the often prickly relationships with Met impresario Rudolph Bing and conductor von Karajan, the infamous story of the stalker "Miss N," and the touchingly rendered relationship with her beloved husband, Bertil Niklasson.
What emerges from these pages is a diva in the old mold: a giant voice matched by an oversize personality, a professional who expected the same level of perfection from others that she demanded of herself, and a woman who loved and lived life with joy and good humor . . . and oh, that voice.
Includes 56 photographs and a discography.
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