Royal Swedish Opera Archives Vol. 4 – Aida

Brita Hertzberg was one of Sweden’s most popular 20th century operatic artists. Today, she is perhaps best known as the mother of another great singer, Catarina Ligendza. In the middle of the last century, she and her husband, the tenor Einar Beyron, were for several decades known by most Swedes as “hovsångarparet” – the Swedish “court singers, by special appointment to the King”. They were as great in Wagner operas as they were in modern operas of that time, they toured and performed a broad repertoire on the air and at concerts. They have both become merely historical names, as re-releases of their recordings have been lacking. Therefore, it is sensational news to be presenting an almost complete recording of Verdi’s Aida from the performance in the spring of 1956 that was Brita Hertzberg’s unofficial farewell to the opera house in which she had been one of the foremost artists for more than 25 years. In this unique Aida, from a private collection, Brita Hertzberg’s magnificent Amneris is in the company of a young and astute Birgit Nilsson and Set Svanholm the legendary opera director and heroic tenor who would have been 100 in the autumn of 2004.

The recording also features the powerful bass baritone Sigurd Björling, both the sonorous basses Sven Nilsson and Leon Björker as well as Elisabeth Söderström. The conductor is Sixten Ehrling.