Birgit Finnilä (born 20 January 1931) is a Swedish

contralto A contralto () is a classical music, classical female singing human voice, voice whose vocal range is the lowest of their voice type, voice types. The contralto's vocal range is fairly rare, similar to the mezzo-soprano, and almost identical to ...

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

singer.

Life

Finnilä was born in

Sibbarp Sibbarp can refer to: * Sibbarp, Malmö, a neighbourhood of Malmö, Sweden * Sibbarp, Varberg Municipality, a village in Varberg Municipality Varberg Municipality () is a municipality in Halland County, in southwest Sweden. Its seat is in Var ...

, Sweden into a musical family. She studied at the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is one of the oldest music schools in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the firs ...

in London. She made her operatic debut in

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

in 1967. Though principally singing concert works, her operatic roles include parts in Britten's ''

The Rape of Lucretia ''The Rape of Lucretia'' (Op. 37) is an opera in two acts by Benjamin Britten, written for Kathleen Ferrier, who performed the title role. Ronald Duncan based his English libretto on André Obey's play '. Performance history The opera wa ...

'', Gluck's ''

Orfeo ed Euridice (; French: '; English: ''Orpheus and Eurydice'') is an opera composed by Christoph Willibald Gluck, based on the myth of Orpheus and set to a libretto by Ranieri de' Calzabigi. It belongs to the genre of the '' azione teatrale'', meaning an ...

'', Handel's ''

Flavio ''Flavio, re de' Longobardi'' ("Flavio, King of the Lombards", Händel-Werke-Verzeichnis, HWV 16) is an opera seria in three acts by George Frideric Handel. The Italian-language libretto was by Nicola Francesco Haym, after Matteo Noris's ''Flavi ...

'', Mozart's ''

Le nozze di Figaro ''The Marriage of Figaro'' (, ), K. 492, is a ''commedia per musica'' (opera buffa) in four acts composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with an Italian libretto written by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna ...

'', and Wagner's

Ring cycle (''The Ring of the Nibelung''), WWV 86, is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from Germanic heroic legend, namely Norse legendary sagas and the . The compos ...

Recordings

* ''Baroque and Romantic Vocal Music'' BIS-CD-127, singing ''

Sea Pictures ''Sea Pictures, Op. 37'' is a song cycle for contralto and orchestra by Edward Elgar. It consists of settings of a poems by five different authors. A version for piano was often performed by Elgar. Many mezzo-sopranos have sung the piece. The ...

'' by

Edward Elgar Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, (; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestr ...

* ''Dvorák/ Fernström'' Big Ben 571-006 4 (861-006 2), singing ''

Biblical Songs ''Biblical Songs'' () is a song cycle which consists of musical settings by Czech composer Antonín Dvořák of ten texts, selected by him, from the Book of Psalms. It was originally composed for low voice and piano (1894, Op.99, B. 185). ...

'', Op. 99, by

Antonín Dvořák Antonín Leopold Dvořák ( ; ; 8September 18411May 1904) was a Czech composer. He frequently employed rhythms and other aspects of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia, following the Romantic-era nationalist example of his predec ...

References

1931 births Living people People from Varberg Municipality Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music Swedish contraltos Musicians from Halland County {{Sweden-opera-singer-stub