Birgit Nilsson

Birgit Nilsson0:00

This done.

Presenter0:01

Unload.

Birgit Nilsson0:01

Is the only extract the BBC has of this edition of Desert Island Discs. The presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:08

In what part of Sweden were you born, Madame Neusl?

Birgit Nilsson0:11

I was born in Saad, Sweden, not far away from Malmer.

Presenter0:14

You were brought up on a farm, I believe.

Birgit Nilsson0:15

That's right.

Presenter0:16

Had your family been farmers for many generations,

Birgit Nilsson0:19

Yes, by the way, there have been farmers on the same farm as I have been born. I'm the seventh generation.

Presenter0:27

Do you have brothers who will take over the firm?

Birgit Nilsson0:29

No, no. I have to become a farmer myself. Instead to go to the island. I have to become a farmer.

Presenter0:33

Love that.

Presenter0:35

When did you first show interest in music? How young were you?

Birgit Nilsson0:39

Oh, it was before I could walk. I walked very late and I sang very early, you know.

Presenter0:44

What was your benefit?

Birgit Nilsson0:44

What was your preferred

Presenter0:46

What was your very first appearance in public?

Birgit Nilsson0:49

Oh, I was around four years old. I had to sing in a Christmas party, you know. It was a lot of.

Birgit Nilsson0:55

people. I went with my mother, but I didn't sing the songs she shoes. I sang some other songs that I have learned, you know, from the workers on the farm and she wasn't quite happy with me.

Presenter1:05

She wasn't quite happy with me.

Birgit Nilsson1:09

Where did we go?

Presenter1:10

Dot it.

Birgit Nilsson1:10

Uh

Presenter1:10

Uh

Birgit Nilsson1:10

Yeah.

Presenter1:10

Yeah.

Birgit Nilsson1:10

I am studying in Stockholm in Musical Academy and Opera School.

Presenter1:14

Yeah. Did your family encourage you in your music?

Birgit Nilsson1:17

Oh, no, no, not at all. My father was very much against it. And uh my mother, well, she wanted to see me happy, but at the same time she was very unsure

Presenter1:27

When you left the uh Stockholm Royal Academy of Music.

Birgit Nilsson1:31

Well, uh then I from the Royal Academy of Music I went to the opera school and from the opera school I I got the contract from the Swedish opera.

Presenter1:40

Yeah. Did you have to start in the in the chorus or or did you?

Birgit Nilsson1:43

Oh no, no, no, I I got big rolls immediately and

Presenter1:46

Yes. Now we were talking about your debut in in the fresh roots. I I believe you had to learn that part very quickly.

Birgit Nilsson1:52

Yes, I had to jump in with three days' notes. I had to learn the the role in three days and uh

Presenter1:57

Yeah.

Birgit Nilsson1:59

It was very difficult and the the conductor was very difficult too and I cried a lot and I have no handkerchief, you know, I have to borrow from somebody else and On to the next rehearsal I brought a half a dozen handkerchiefs with me and I was terrible nervous in that role.

Presenter2:10

That's it!

Birgit Nilsson2:16

But it went fine.

Presenter2:18

Mm. And when did you make your your formal debut?

Birgit Nilsson2:20

It was the next year because nobody then believed in me. The conductor said I was without talent and the the director of the opera didn't like me very much. So finally Fritz Busch he came to the Stockholm Opera for to conduct Macbeth and they were trying to find a lady Macbeth and um Fritz Busch heard me.

Birgit Nilsson2:39

only by a chance, and he wanted me as Lady Macbeth, but everybody was very much against it. But anyhow I got the role and I was very happy. Fritzburg was a wonderful man.

Presenter2:47

Was that one?

Presenter2:50

Madame Nielsen, at the Royal Opera in Stockholm, do you sing always in Swedish?

Birgit Nilsson2:53

Yes. Well now the la uh last years we have been singing The Ring and Tristan and Fidelio and so forth in in German, but earlier I did all my roles in in Swedish.

Presenter3:03

Mhm. The ring you will learn first in Sweden.

Birgit Nilsson3:05

Yes.

Birgit Nilsson3:07

It was a hard work to learn Italian German.

Presenter3:09

Exactly.

Presenter3:10

What was your first appearance outside Sweden?

Birgit Nilsson3:13

That was in Glimeborn.

Birgit Nilsson3:15

Fifty-one, Fritz Busch brought me there. I sang um Eletra in Mozart's I Domineo.

Presenter3:21

You have a most unusual range, haven't you? Um, Mozart and Wagner and everything in between.

Birgit Nilsson3:26

Oh, thank you. I'm happy to hear that.

Presenter3:30

Well then came Bayreuth and the Vienna State Opera.

Presenter3:34

And then it was nineteen fifty seven, I believe, you made your debut at Covent Garden with Brunnhilde.

Birgit Nilsson3:39

Yes, that's right.

Presenter3:40

and an enormous success.

Presenter3:42

At the Scale Milan,

Presenter3:44

You sang, I believe, during the Puccini Santinary celebrations.

Presenter3:48

So that was m an unusual honour for a Swedish soprano. What do you think?

Birgit Nilsson3:49

Bonner friend.

Birgit Nilsson3:51

Yes, and it was the opening of the season too. It was a really great evening.

Presenter3:56

Yes. What did you think?

Birgit Nilsson3:58

I did two rounds.

Presenter3:59

Tmm.

Presenter4:00

That was before your debut at the Metropolitan New York.

Birgit Nilsson4:03

Yes, that was fifty eight. My debut in Metropolitan was fifty nine.

Presenter4:08

Another big success at the Met.

Birgit Nilsson4:09

Oh yes, it was fantastic.

Presenter4:12

Well, we've had a very quick skim through a success story, Madam Nielsen. In the twelve years since you sang for the first time outside Sweden, you've just about conquered the opera houses of the world. I believe you've received a decoration from the King of Sweden.

Birgit Nilsson4:24

Yes, he has given me the title Royal Court Singer and I also have the golden medal Literis and Artibus for Literature and Art only given to the to artists, you know.

Presenter4:37

Mm-hmm.

Presenter4:38

Let's have your next record.

Birgit Nilsson4:42

And my next choice would be Salomy, but it's so difficult to to play just a short bit of that wonderful opera, so I think I I wait to play that until I come to the island, you know? So I would play something quite different.

Presenter4:54

Uh

Birgit Nilsson4:57

I will sing Now I could have danced all night from my fair lady.

Presenter5:02

I didn't know you sang light numbers like this.

Birgit Nilsson5:05

Well, yes, I did. The matter of fact is that when I finished opera school I was very short of money, so I took engagement in a restaurant.

Birgit Nilsson5:14

And I sang there every evening uh operettas, musicals and folk songs and everything. And I enjoyed it very much at least.

Presenter5:24

Madam Nielsen, where is your home now?

Birgit Nilsson5:27

Oh wherever I hang my hat, as as the American says. I really don't know. I have so many homes and I feel home all over wherever I I go. I'm five months in New York every year and I have an apartment, so I feel very much home there.

Presenter5:43

But you're working though Yes, but I'm working the whole year.

Presenter5:47

How far ahead are your engagements planned?

Birgit Nilsson5:49

At least two years, sometimes more.

Presenter5:52

Jet travel must make an international singer's life much more exhausting than it used to be.

Birgit Nilsson5:58

Mmm, the jet plane, they kill the voice, I say, because one evening you can sing in Berlin, the other evening you can sing in New York. For instance, last year I did one television show in Stockholm on a Sunday, and next and the other Monday I did another television show in New York.

Presenter6:05

For instance

Birgit Nilsson6:14

Wow. But I wouldn't recommend it to anybody.

Presenter6:17

Yeah.

Birgit Nilsson6:17

Uh

Presenter6:17

You have a reputation for being a a particularly hard worker. You'll tackle three really big roles in in in a single week.

Presenter6:25

Do you pursue any physical or or mental exercises to help you to relax to do this amount of work?

Birgit Nilsson6:31

No, I haven't been thinking on that. Maybe where I grew up on the farm the the life in the country, close to the earth, has

Birgit Nilsson6:41

made me strong.

Presenter6:43

It is.

Presenter6:45

A few years ago when you were singing at Coffin Garden, a critic gave you rather a poor notice and you got rather angry and said you would never sing in London again. Well I'm happy to say you changed your mind and you were back again in a year or so. Would you say that you were

Birgit Nilsson6:55

Thank you, but I never said it. It was the newspapers who said it, but I did not.

Presenter7:00

Ah, spend it, good.

Presenter7:02

So you're not unduly sensitive to criticism.

Birgit Nilsson7:04

Oh no, I love the critics.

Presenter7:07

Are you superstitious? As so many saints are.

Birgit Nilsson7:10

No, I'm not.

Presenter7:11

Have you any one ambition that you haven't so far realized?

Presenter7:15

Any one role that you want to sing that nobody's asked you to yet or?

Birgit Nilsson7:19

Well, if I would have an ambition to sing another role, any opera house would be happy to make it with me. But I have still little time to study and l and learn, but uh I will study Elektra of Strauss.

Presenter7:32

The

Birgit Nilsson7:34

I think it's s at least six or seven opera houses who has been asking for it already.

Presenter7:38

Already. When? Do you know?

Birgit Nilsson7:40

Well, not before the spring of'sixty five.