To the readers: I heard Ingrid Bjoner at The Mann Music Center in Philadelphia- Summer 1977. Because I was so far away and because it's an outdoor arena, it was difficult to fully appreciate her remarkable voice. I loved Nilsson- who didn't. But Bjoner's instrument was unique. She never lost her upper register notes as Flagstad did later in her career. Her voice was so much like Flagstad's in her velvety edges. Her timbre in the lower and upper registers were so smooth. As the years go by, her recordings are vanishing. She was in my opinion THE WAGNERIAN SOPRANO WHO NEVER WAS, since Nilsson overshadowed her. How sad.
I so agree with you! Her Turandot and her Empress electrified when I heard Bjoner live many years ago. Much though I love Nilsson, to me Bjoner remains the best Turandot ever: powerful yet fragile, dramatic yet lyrical, with a voice like a diamond: cutting yet sumptuous and enthralling.
@@nohaylamujer Here is a brief bio on Bjoner, for the readers not familiar with her. She was born the second to the last of nine children, in the late 20s. When the war ended, her father insisted that she, along with all his other children, obtain a good college education. He did not want her to become something like a cocktail waitress or singer. While she attended college, she would ask her father for money so she could take singing lessons as a "hobby". She didn't say "as a profession" or her father would say no. She graduated in 1950 and took her exams to become a pharmacist. She passed. (end of part 1)
She went to Germany and passed her pharmacy tests soon after that. While dispensing medicines during the day, she would sing at night, hoping to be discovered. She was and the rest is history. Ingrid was interviewed at the end of her career and she said she had a bittersweet recollection of her singing career. She said that she saw herself sitting on a stool, with Nilsson on one side of her and all her successors on the other.
To the readers: I heard Ingrid Bjoner at The Mann Music Center in Philadelphia- Summer 1977. Because I was so far away and because it's an outdoor arena, it was difficult to fully appreciate her remarkable voice. I loved Nilsson- who didn't. But Bjoner's instrument was unique. She never lost her upper register notes as Flagstad did later in her career. Her voice was so much like Flagstad's in her velvety edges. Her timbre in the lower and upper registers were so smooth. As the years go by, her recordings are vanishing. She was in my opinion THE WAGNERIAN SOPRANO WHO NEVER WAS, since Nilsson overshadowed her. How sad.
I so agree with you! Her Turandot and her Empress electrified when I heard Bjoner live many years ago. Much though I love Nilsson, to me Bjoner remains the best Turandot ever: powerful yet fragile, dramatic yet lyrical, with a voice like a diamond: cutting yet sumptuous and enthralling.
@@nohaylamujer Here is a brief bio on Bjoner, for the readers not familiar with her. She was born the second to the last of nine children, in the late 20s. When the war ended, her father insisted that she, along with all his other children, obtain a good college education. He did not want her to become something like a cocktail waitress or singer. While she attended college, she would ask her father for money so she could take singing lessons as a "hobby". She didn't say "as a profession" or her father would say no. She graduated in 1950 and took her exams to become a pharmacist. She passed. (end of part 1)
She went to Germany and passed her pharmacy tests soon after that. While dispensing medicines during the day, she would sing at night, hoping to be discovered. She was and the rest is history. Ingrid was interviewed at the end of her career and she said she had a bittersweet recollection of her singing career. She said that she saw herself sitting on a stool, with Nilsson on one side of her and all her successors on the other.
🐶 emotional love IT