Birgit Nilsson 100th Anniversary: New Documentary

“A League of her own” – An intimate portrait of Birgit Nilsson on the occasion of her centennial .

The Swedish soprano Birgit Nilsson, who would have celebrated her 100th birthday on 17th May 2018, had an incredible technique and was the world’s leading dramatic soprano between 1955 and 1975.

In “A League of her own”, a documentary by Thomas Voigt and Wolfgang Wunderlich, rare TV and archive footage shows Nilsson at work, and is complemented by interviews with Plácido Domingo, Otto Schenk, James Levine, Nina Stemme, Jonas Kaufmann and many others.

The film reveals a sensitive woman behind the honest, down to earth, quick-witted artist, who had “a voice like fire and ice” (Sir Antonio Pappano). The documentary was shot at the farm in Bastad/Sweden, where Nilsson grew up and spent the summers until the end of her life, at the Royal Opera in Stockholm, where the legendary Wagnerian singer made her operatic debut in 1946, and in places like the Bayreuth Festival, the Wiener Staatsoper and the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where Nilsson was the star and box office draw.

Length: 60' & 90'