La Nilsson: My Life in Opera by Birgit Nilsson
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Book Reviews of La Nilsson: My Life in Opera
Book Review: Wonderful Read
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a wonderfully entertaining read about a thoroughly gracious and unexpectedly humorous lady. I knew that she reportedly had a lively sense of humor, and this book chronicles that fact. It is especially nice to know that this book was not "ghost written," but was just translated from the Swedish.Book Review: lots of amusing anecdotes, sometimes a bit boring
Summary: 4 Stars
If you are an opera fan, you will probably enjoy a lot of the behind the scenes anecdotes in this book. Most interesting for me were the parts that discuss working with high-maintenance divas and conductors (especially Karajan). There is also a very disturbing section about a stalker who followed Nilsson around the world for 9 years.
There are also many paragraphs of the form "In 19xx I performed such-and-such opera in such-and-such theatre alongside so-and-so who was a wonderful singer and so-and-so who was really good on stage etc etc." These get kind of boring --- except in those cases when the performers played practical jokes on each other. Because of the boring parts, I found it a little hard to motivate myself to read through the whole book, but there are a lot of good stories in there.
Nilsson fans will also appreciate the discography. She was an awesome singer.
Book Review: An interesting panorama
Summary: 4 Stars
Well, as usual in an autobiography, late Birgit blows her own trumpet and is carefully delicate when questioning somebody. But the book offers a very interesting insight of the Opera world, with vanities, greed, hyperbolic self-esteem of interpreters, etc. As expected, she also displays her famous sense of humour. However, I probably demanded from the narrator more thorough detail than the one she provides.
Despite that, I will always worship her magnificent interpretations. In my opinion, the best Isolde ever been on the scenario.
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