Ligendza, Catarina (real name, Katarina Beyron)
Ligendza, Catarina (real name, Katarina Beyron)
Ligendza, Catarina (real name, Katarina Beyron), Swedish soprano; b. Stockholm, Oct. 18, 1937. Her parents sang at Stockholm’s Royal Theater. She studied at the Würzburg Cons., in Vienna, and with Greindl in Saarbrücken. She made her debut as Countess Alma viva in Linz (1965); then sang in Braunschweig and Saarbrücken (1966–69); subsequently became a member of the Deutsche Oper in West Berlin and of the Württemberg State Theater in Stuttgart. In 1970 she sang for the first time at Milan’s La Scala and at the Salzburg Easter Festival. She made her Metropolitan Opera debut in N.Y. as Leonore in Fidelio on Feb. 25, 1971; that summer she appeared at the Bayreuth Festival; her Covent Garden debut in London followed as Senta in 1972. In subsequent years, she sang in principal operatic centers of Europe before retiring from the operatic stage in 1988. Her other roles included Agathe, Isolde, Brünnhilde, Desdemona, Chrysothemis, and Ariadne.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire