Thorborg, Kerstin

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Thorborg, Kerstin

Thorborg, Kerstin, noted Swedish contralto; b. Venjan, May 19, 1896; d. Falun, Dalarna, April 12, 1970. She studied at the Royal Cons, in Stockholm. She made her operatic debut there as Ortrud at the Royal Theater in 1924, remaining on its roster until 1930; sang in Prague (1932-33), at the Berlin Städtische Oper (1933-35), at the Salzburg Festivals (1935-37), at the Vienna State Opera (1935-38), and at London’s Covent Garden (1936-39). On Dec. 21, 1936, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut in N.Y. as Fricka, remaining on the company’s roster until 1946; sang there again from 1947 to 1950; also appeared in concerts. In 1944 she was made a Swedish court singer; taught voice in Stockholm from 1950. She was particularly esteemed as a Wagnerian; also excelled as Gluck’s Orfeo, Saint-Saëns’s Delilah, and Strauss’s Herodias and Clytemnestra.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire

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