Exclusive: Win a bumper Birgit Nilsson box

This might be the best offer you get all week: would you like to win one of these?

The complete Birgit Nilsson on Decca.

That’s 79 CDs and 2 DVDs, including 27 complete operas.

Her 100th birthday falls next Thursday.

All you need to do to have a chance of winning a box is to answer these questions correctly. All of them. First reader with all the right answers gets the box.

Here’s the quiz:

1 What is the earliest extant recording of BN?

2 Which conductor did BN infamously have a disagreement with over the lighting design during a rehearsal of Wagner’s Ring?

3 With the exception of three roles, BN first performed all of her roles in Stockholm (and usually in Swedish). What are the roles and where did she perform them?

4 BN made her MET debut 18 December 1959 as Isolde. The second performance had three different Tristans – who were they?

5 According to opera gossip columns, which famous tenor decided to exact revenge by biting Birgit instead of kissing her during their love scene in the third act of Turandot after losing a battle of the high Cs with Birgit in the previous act?

6 Which country featured BN as Turandot on a postage stamp?

7 When did Birgit Nilsson (BN) marry Bertil Niklasson?

8 What was the name of BN’s beloved St. Bernard?

Answers, please, by email to: norman@normanlebrecht.com

Good luck!

The winner will be announced on Slipped Disc on Birgit’s birthday.