Swedish soprano, 88
RIPThe accomplished and elegant Berit Lindholm died yesterday, aged 88.
She made her Bayreuth debut in 1967 as Venus in Tannhäuser and sang Brünnhilde in the Wolfgang Wagner Ring production up to 1974. She also sang Brünnhilde at San Francisco in 1972.
She sang Chrysothemis at Covent Garden in 1966 (pictured), returning as Brünnhilde and Isolde.
Her family issued this statement: It is with great sadness that we announce that our beloved mother Berit Lindholm has passed away. She fell asleep this morning, August 12, 2023, at the age of 88 years. Warm thanks to all of you who have engaged in her fanpage. Warm greetings from her daughters Kristina and Eva
She was a wonderful Isolde in the 1974 Tristan at Netherlands Opera, directed by Götz Friedrich and conducted by Michael Gielen. Yvonne Minton was the Brangäne.
‘Inclusivity’ always comes with a price tag…the downgrading of quality.
And what on earth has this to do with the post?
@Robin Blick – your comment is irrelevant here, but as you’ve made it I’ll just point out that actually the reverse is true.
She was a terrific Cassandra in the Colin Davis Troyens. Her legacy will live on …
She was an excellent Brunnhilde when she stepped in at very short notice in Siegfried and Gotterdammerung for the ailing Helga Dernesch in Scottish Opera’s much praised Ring cycle in 1971.
Certainly far more suited than the pushed-up-mezzo Dernesch, yet another voice ruined by Karajan.
Anyone who heard her in the Scottish Opera’s Rosenkavalier, Walkure and Siegfried earlier in the year, and indeed when the company visited the Proms, agreed she was a stunning Marschallin and Brunnhilde, singing and acting superbly. A year earlier her Fidelio was equally superb. Yet by replacing Regine Crespin in his recorded Ring, Karajan – as was his habit and suggested by Tom Phillips – certainly pushed the Dernesch voice too quickly.
But this only started to become noticed during the Tannhauser recordings with Solti in Vienna in the fortnight prior to the Scottish Opera Ring, having earlier sung Elizabeth at Bayreuth. Soon after, as Richard Osborne writes in his biography of Karajan “A Life in Music”, it was Karajan’s producer Michel Glotz who tried to persuade the conductor that Dernesch was not right for Isolde which she was to record with Vickers and perform at the 1972 Easter Festival. Karajan paid no attention but Glotz was correct. Although she continued to sing Isolde elsewhere, as the decade continued faulty technique led to the voice becoming a near shadow of its former self. She then took a year off before returning to her former strength as a mezzo. And judging from the Herodias I heard in Munich and Los Angeles, her career continued as a wonderfully striking singing actress.
It really is depressing how some seem unable to resist twisting even a death notice for the great Berit Lindholm into an attack on two other musicians: in this case Helga Dernesch and (of course) Herbert von Karajan. Sorry, Nick2, but Régine Crespin was not “replaced” by Dernesch in Karajan’s recorded ‘Ring’; Crespin never had any intention of venturing beyond the more lyrical Brünnhilde of ‘Die Walküre’. Tom Phillips is welcome to his view of Dernesch’s Brünnhilde in ‘Siegfried’ and ‘Götterdämmerung’ but I certainly prefer its warmth to the stainless steel of some other interpreters – and that also goes for her Isolde. She was already moving into the dramatic soprano range when Karajan engaged her for Brünnhilde in ‘Siegfried’. And Nick2 should re-read Richard Osborne, where I think he’ll find that Michel Glotz did not try to persuade Karajan that Dernesch “was not right” for the role of Isolde; what he did try to do (successfully) was persuade Karajan that she was unwell at the time of the recording sessions and should consult a doctor. So many singers who worked with him spoke of Karajan’s extraordinary consideration for them in performance and that this lazy canard that he “ruined” voices cannot go unchallenged.
I accept MJA’s comment that my quote from Michel Glotz is not accurate as expressed in HvK’s biography. But it was well known that vocal problems were in part at the root of the illness which resulted in Solti being unable to complete Tannhauser on schedule and at least part of the reason for Glotz’ comment. Sadly singing Isolde for Scottish Opera the following year, the vocal difficulties had became more pronounced, as in the Liebestodt when for example instead of the final F# semibreve she could barely hold the note for a quaver. I agree though her voice did retain an elegance and warmth even in those years. None of which should take away from the excellence of Berit Lindholm in a variety of roles in many Houses.
@Nick2 – well said.
Outshadowed at the time by Nilsson, Jones, and others. In the current artistically depleted time, she would truly stand out for her excellence.
I remember her beautiful Wagner concert with Stokowski and the American Symphony at Carnegie Hall in ’69 or ’70.
It was ’69. The Liebestod, at least, from that Wagner matinee (pace Willa Cather) has been posted, twice!, on YouTube. One “Tabarro 18” has been loading many other live Lindholm performances in recent months.
What a wonderful singer! Her Cassandra needs no introduction, and her Bayreuth Brunnhildes were a revelation to me on the radio broadcasts here in Australia in (I think) the seventies. RIP indeed.
I think the intro is not factually correct. I saw the Wolfgang Wagner Bayreuth Ring in 1971 when I am sure the Brunnhilde was Catarina Ligendza. There can be no doubt, though, that Berit Lindholm was excellent in the role.
She was my first Brünnhilde in my first Bayreuth ‘Ring’ – 1971.- (I still keep my programs and ticket stubs.)
Memorable, indeed.!
RIP in your new Valhalla, Berit.
Ian Thomas
Mexico.
2ianthomas@gmail.com