Swedish soprano Birgit Nilsson, 87
Posted: Wednesday, January 11th, 2006 3:03 pm
Birgit Nilsson, the farmer’s daughter who became renown in the world’s great opera houses for her dazzling voice and among colleagues for her playful sense of humor, has died at age 87.
She died on Christmas Day, the Stockholm daily Svenska Dagbladet reported.
As word spread of her death two decades after she retired, the Swedish singer was remembered as one of the world’s top Wagnerian sopranos.
“With Birgit Nilsson’s passing, Sweden has lost one of its greatest artists,” King Carl XVI Gustaf said in a rare statement. …
A funeral was held Wednesday at a church in her native town Vastra Karup in southern Sweden, with only her closest relatives attending, said Fredrik Westerlund, the church’s vicar. He did not know when she died or the cause of death, but Nilsson was said to have had heart trouble in recent years. … Read full obituary
