- Carolina Östberg
Carolina Östberg, (1853-1929), was a Swedish opera singer and singing teacher. She was one of the most popular stars of her time in
Sweden , and also internationally known.Östberg was born child to a barber-surgeon and displayed a natural musical talent early on. She was a student at
Dramatens elevskola 1869-73 and a student ofSigne Hebbe . She active as a concert singer before she debuted at Stora Teatern at the 1873-74 season withLouise Pyk . Both Östbeg and Pyk made a huge success. She was given a contract after her part as "Carlo Broschi" in "Hälften var", a part which was to be her most popular one.When she retired after her marriage in 1877, it was seen as a great loss, as she had managed to become one of her countrys most noted singers. When she was unexpectedly launched in the lead role of "Boccaccio" in Nya Teatern 1879, "The applause never seemed to stop", and the press demanded that she be given a position at the
Royal Swedish Opera . She performed inCopenhagen (1880),Germany (1882-83),Norway (1885), and performed at Nya Teatern in Stockholm under the name Mrs Östberg.In 1886, Östberg was employed at the Royal Swedish Opera, which was seen as the triumph of the audience over the operatic management; "The Public had had it's will" over the opera, after having demanded that she be employed there for years. She stayed there for her remaining career, except for a tour in
USA in 1892-94. She was compared toLouise Michaeli . She was givenLitteris et Artibus in 1891, and again, withbrilliant s, in 1900, and was in 1897 inducted in to theRoyal Swedish Academy of Music . In 1905, she made nine recordings ongrammophone . She retired in 1906 and was later active as a singing teacher.Among her parts were the title role of "
La Gioconda ", Sieglinde in "Die Walküre ", Alice in "Falstaff", Marguerite de Valois in "Les Huguenots " and the title role in "Aida ".References
* http://runeberg.org/eurkonst/0674.html
* Österberg, Carin et al., "Svenska kvinnor: föregångare, nyskapare". Lund: Signum 1990. (ISBN 91-87896-03-6)
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