Lilly Walleni in Daria at Kungliga Operan 1907 - SMV - NV059

Lilly Walleni as Anita in the opera Navarresiskan at Kungliga Operan 1906 - SMV - GV056

Lilly Walleni is the stage name of Sanna Klara Vallentin (1875–1920), a Swedish mezzo-soprano. Thanks to her powerful voice and her dramatic temperament, she is remembered in particular for the Wagner roles she performed in Germany's principal opera houses as well as in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

. From 1911 to 1916, she was engaged by the Court Opera in Hannover where she was honoured with two Lippe awards.

Early life

Born on 11 August 1875 in

Malmö Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal populat ...

, Sanna Klara Vallentin spent 16 years in the United States while still young, studying at the Music College of Boston. On returning to Sweden in 1902, she was engaged at

Albert Ranft Albert Adam Ranft (23 November 1858 – 5 October 1938) was a Swedish theatre director and actor. Biography Albert Adam Ranft was born in Stockholm, the son of Adolf Fredrik Ranft and Katarina Amalia Reijhell. His brother Gustaf Adolf Ranft ...

's operetta centre in Stockholm until 1905, after which she was with the Royal Swedish Opera until 1908. She completed her education with a year's study in Berlin.

Career

From 1910, she was engaged by the Court Opera in Hannover, and also appeared as a guest at principal opera houses in Germany, including Dresden and Hamburg. From 1917 to 1919, she performed at the Stockholm Opera. From 1909 to 1917, after being one of his most successful pupils, she was married to the Swedish tenor Nisse Strandberg. Thanks to her wide-ranging voice and her effective acting abilities, she was given several major Wagnerian roles. These included Elsa in ''

Lohengrin Lohengrin () is a character in German Arthurian literature. The son of Parzival (Percival), he is a knight of the Holy Grail sent in a boat pulled by swans to rescue a maiden who can never ask his identity. His story, which first appears in Wolf ...

'', Elisabeth in ''

Tannhäuser Tannhäuser (; gmh, Tanhûser), often stylized, "The Tannhäuser," was a German Minnesinger and traveling poet. Historically, his biography, including the dates he lived, is obscure beyond the poetry, which suggests he lived between 1245 and ...

'', Kundry in ''

Parsifal ''Parsifal'' ( WWV 111) is an opera or a music drama in three acts by the German composer Richard Wagner and his last composition. Wagner's own libretto for the work is loosely based on the 13th-century Middle High German epic poem ''Parzival ...

'' and Sieglinde and Brünnhilde in ''

Die Walküre (; ''The Valkyrie''), WWV 86B, is the second of the four music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner's ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'' (English: ''The Ring of the Nibelung''). It was performed, as a single opera, at the National Theatre Munich on ...

''. She also performed the title roles in Puccini's ''

Tosca ''Tosca'' is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900. The work, based on Victorien Sardou's 1887 French-language drama ...

'' and Verdi's ''

Aida ''Aida'' (or ''Aïda'', ) is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni. Set in the Old Kingdom of Egypt, it was commissioned by Cairo's Khedivial Opera House and had its première there on 24 December ...

''. Lilly Walleni died in Stockholm on 14 May 1920.

Awards

Walleni was honoured with awards from the principalities of

Lippe Lippe () is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Neighboring districts are Herford, Minden-Lübbecke, Höxter, Paderborn, Gütersloh, and district-free Bielefeld, which forms the region Ostwestfalen-Lippe. The ...

and

Schaumburg-Lippe Schaumburg-Lippe, also Lippe-Schaumburg, was created as a county in 1647, became a principality in 1807, a free state in 1918, and was until 1946 a small state in Germany, located in the present day state of Lower Saxony, with its capital at Bück ...

. The Rose for Culture (Lippische Rose für Kunst) was awarded to Walleni on 19 February 1914 at a concert in

Schloss Detmold Detmold () is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, with a population of . It was the capital of the small Principality of Lippe from 1468 until 1918 and then of the Free State of Lippe until 1947. Today it is the administrative center of ...

in honour of

Leopold IV, Prince of Lippe Leopold IV, Prince of Lippe (''Leopold Julius Bernhard Adalbert Otto Karl Gustav''; 30 May 1871 – 30 December 1949) was the final sovereign of the Principality of Lippe. Succeeding to the throne in 1905 he had been governing the state since ...

. On 12 December 1913, she had already been awarded a Second Class Schaumburg-Lippe medal for Culture and Science and had been given the title Princely Lippe Opera Singer (Fürstlich Lippische Opernsängerin).

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Walleni, Lilly 1875 births 1920 deaths Singers from Malmö Swedish operatic mezzo-sopranos 20th-century Swedish women opera singers