The story of Birgit Nilssons first recordings in Gothenburgh 1936. Brought back to life by an excellent research team at INA, Institut national de l'audiovisuel, Bry-sur-Marne, France.
I met her in 1981 at a book signing. When I mentioned it was my birthday, she was so excited and signed the book with a big flourish. I still have that page framed in my music room.
And in the same key as the Met performance from October 1983! She was a force of nature! And NICE too! I guess it’s easy to be nice when you’re a legend in your own time. She was so patient and kind to us college kids from 1970-74 when we went backstage to adore her and get autographs (all those great divas we heard in those years were nice to us-Sutherland, Tebaldi, Price, Sills, Olivero, Caballé, Albanese, Steber, Birgit).
Yes, you'd think being kind & magnanimous would be the default state of people once they reach the pinnacle of success, ESPECIALLY if it's someone like Madonna Ciccone who made it all the way up there through sheer luck & tenacity, if not the smidgen of talents that she possessed. But by all accounts, she was as nasty & vile as any person could be to others. Guess it must not be success in the most outward sense alone that satisfies the soul. And that is what this TRUE DIVA was genuinely able to achieve for herself.
I met many of them as well. And they were all very friendly. I’m still perplexed, however, why Montserrat gave everyone else pictures of herself in beautiful gowns and caftans, while she gave me a picture of her holding the head of John the Baptist 😂
@@wotan10950Definitely would consider that an honor if that was me. (Though, I suspect it was simply because she had run out of her regular ones. 😝) But she sang Salome? Surprised to learn modern German music was part of her repertoire.
