(2 of 2)
¶Soprano Aase Nordmo-Lbvberg, 34, was born north of Narvik, Norway, the daughter of a farmer. During the German invasion a Norwegian army officer quartered on the farm heard Aase singing over her chores, suggested that she have her voice trained. From 1942, when she went to occupied Oslo to study, until 1948, she had no chance to sing in public. Then she began to astound critics in the concert halls, was picked up and trained by the Swedish Royal Opera. Her round tone has been compared to Flagstad's. So far her voice lacks the dramatic thrust and her acting the intensity needed for Wagner's booming heroines.
¶Grey-eyed Soprano Birgit Nilsson is five years older than Nordmo-Lovberg and a colleague of hers in the Royal Opera. Born on a Swedish farm, she also had her career detoured by the war. She developed her repertory slowly after her 1944 debut, but now sings an impressively wide range of roles: most of the great roles of Strauss, all the Wagnerian soprano parts, plus an assortment of new roles from contemporary works. Nilsson is touted chiefly as a soprano whose range and big power come closest to fitting Flagstad's Wagnerian profile. Along with an opulent collection of. jewelry and antique furniture, her operatic earnings have brought her a taste for high life, which, she insists, is "not so extravagant as Tebaldi's."
¶Tall, slim Mezzo-Soprano Christa Ludwig, 29, has moved in two years from the German provincial opera houses to the position of one of the most sought-after singers in the Vienna State Opera. There she sings a varied repertory corresponding to the wide register of her big, bright voice, e.g., Marie in Berg's Wozzeck, Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro, Amneris in Aida, Dorabella in Cost Fan Tutte.
However different the new singers may be in style and range, they are remarkably alike (with the notable exception of Cerquetti) in being smarter-looking than the ponderous prima donnas of other days. In Europe, as in the U.S., it is no longer enough for a soprano to plant her bulk stage center and belt out a big and beautiful sound. "Sometimes," says an usher at Milan's Casa Ricordi studios, "a voice penetrates through the thick glass doors. I get up and listen. I am never wrong. That fat lady who just went out, she sings like an angel. I don't remember her name, but I don't have to. She's too fat to sing at La Scala."