Birgit Nilsson

Märta Birgit Nilsson (17 May 1918 – 25 December 2005) was a Swedish dramatic soprano. She was best known for her singing in the operas of Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss. Her voice is said to have been very powerful with very good clarity in the upper register.
Biography.
Early life.
Birgit Nilsson was born on a farm at Västra Karup in Skåne. It was north of Malmö. Her parents were Nils Svensson and Justina Svensson (née Paulsson). When she was three years old, she began singing melodies on a toy piano her mother bought for her. She once said that she could sing before she could walk. she also said, "I even sang in my dreams". Her talent at singing was first noticed in her church choir. A choirmaster near her home heard her sing and toldher to take voice lessons.
She studied with Ragnar Blennow in Åstorp for six months to be ready for an audition at the Royal Swedish Academy of Music in Stockholm. At the audition, she came in first out of a group of 47 singers. She was given the Christina Nilsson scholarship. She considered herself self-taught. In 1981, she told an interviewer that "The best teacher is the stage. You walk out onto it, and you have to learn to project." She did not like her early instruction. She said that she was successful because of the native talent. "My first voice teacher almost killed me ... [T]he second was almost as bad."
Death.
Nilsson died on 25 December 2005 at her home near Kristianstad in Skåne. She was aged 87. No cause of death was released. She was survived by her husband Bertil Niklasson (died March 2007), a veterinary surgeon whom she had met on a train and married in 1948. They had no children.
Other websites.
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