TRACKLISTING

CD 1
Giuseppe Verdi
1 Ritorna vincitor! Aida
2 O don fatale Don Carlo
3 Pace, pace, mio Dio! La forza del destino
4 Nel dì della vittoria io le incontrai … Ambizioso spirto … Vieni t’affretta! Macbeth

Giacomo Puccini
5 Vissi d’arte Tosca

Richard Wagner
6 Einsam in trüben Tagen Lohengrin
7 Starke Scheite schichtet mir dort Götterdämmerung

Richard Strauss
8 Allein! Weh, ganz allein Elektra
9 Ein Handwerk verstehst du sicher nicht
Die Frau ohne Schatten
10 Ah! Du wolltest mich nicht deinen Mund küssen lassen, Jokanaan! … Ah! Ich habe deinen Mund geküsst Salome

CD 2
Wagner
1 Dich, teure Halle Tannhäuser
2 Mild und leise Tristan und Isolde
3–7 Wesendonk Lieder

8–14 Jean Sibelius: 7 Songs
15–17 Edvard Grieg: 3 Songs
18–21 Ture Rangström: 4 Songs
22 I could have danced all night Loewe/Lerner: My Fair Lady

Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden · Wiener Philharmoniker · Orchestra dell’Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Roma · Orchester der Wiener Staatsoper · London Symphony Orchestra · Wiener Opernorchester

John Pritchard · Argeo Quadri · Edward Downes · Thomas Schippers · Lorin Maazel · Sir Georg Solti · Hans Knappertsbusch · Herbert von Karajan
Karl Böhm · Sir Colin Davis · Bertil Bokstedt

Virgilio Carbonari · Walter Berry · Gerhard Stolze

RECORDING INFORMATION

Birgit Nilsson's 85th birthday — 18 May 2003

Swedish soprano Birgit Nilsson is one of the handful of singers who can truly be described as legendary. Widely celebrated for her portrayals of the most challenging of all soprano roles, she is, perhaps, best known as the Brünnhilde on Solti's definitive recording of Wagner's Ring cycle.

From the early 1950s when she appeared mainly in her native Sweden, Nilsson soon established a reputation as one of the greatest dramatic sopranos of her generation and the greatest Wagnerian soprano since fellow-Scandinavian Kirsten Flagstad.

In demand by the world’s greatest opera houses throughout her career, which lasted through to the early 1980s, Nilsson's international success was not limited to Wagner. Her repertory also embraced many dramatic roles by Verdi and Puccini in operas which included Macbeth, Aida and Turandot.

Nilsson was, perhaps, at her greatest in the operas of Richard Strauss – a superb Salome, and few would question her supremacy in what is possibly the most demanding of all soprano roles – Elektra. During the latter part of her career she also added the role of the Dyer’s Wife in Die Frau ohne Schatten to her repertoire of stage roles.

The Decca recordings included in this 2-CD set (Two-for-One price) were all recorded within eight years (just the excerpt from the Deutsche Grammophon Die Frau ohne Schatten is later) and they all present Nilsson in magnificent voice. The programme also includes, for the first time on international CD, the selection of Scandinavian songs originally released on LP as Songs from lands of the midnight sun.

Although retired from the operatic stage for some twenty years Birgit Nilsson is still part of the operatic scene and regularly attends competitions and helps young singers. Always famous for her amazing vocal stamina, she shows no signs of slowing down as she approaches her 85th birthday on 18 May 2003.

The album takes its title from the heroic aria from Verdi's Aida (included on the disc).