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Lillian Nordica (December 12, 1857 – May 10, 1914) was an American opera singer who had a major stage career in Europe and her native country. Nordica established herself as one of the foremost dramatic sopranos of the late 19th century and early 20th century due to the high quality of her powerful yet flexible voice and her ability to perform an unusually wide range of roles in the German, French and Italian operatic repertoires. ==Life and career== She was born Lillian Allen Norton in a small Cape Cod style farmhouse built by her grandfather on a hill in Farmington, Maine. The Nordica stage name was bestowed by an Italian ''maestro'' at the beginning of her operatic career. He convinced her that European opera-goers would not tolerate a diva with a plain sounding, Anglo-American name. The adopted name, ''Giglia Nordica'', meant "Lily of the North" but she soon became known as "Madame Nordica" or simply as "Nordica". In her youth, Nordica is said to have possessed an inherent fondness for music and the sounds of singing birds and running brooks. When she was eight her family moved to Boston, Massachusetts to continue the musical education of her sister Wilhelmina. Wilhelmina died before her 18th birthday. Family hopes were then pinned on Lillian and her musical education began soon thereafter. She trained as a singer at Boston, graduating from the New England Conservatory in that city at the age of 18. She had made her public debut at the conservatory as a soloist with the Handel and Haydn Society. Convinced that she could forge a successful career as a professional performer, she travelled to Italy and put a final bel canto polish on her vocalism through study in Milan. As Madame Nordica, she made her operatic debut at Brescia in 1879. She went on to assume a high rank among the international prima donnas of her era, appearing in many major musical venues in Western Europe and Russia. She sang for example at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in 1887-93 and performed at the Bayreuth Festival in Germany in 1894 as Elsa in ''Lohengrin''. In her native America she was particularly associated with the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where her frequent stage partner was the cultured Polish tenor Jean de Reszke. She sang at the Met from 1891 until 1910, with some breaks in between. By all accounts Nordica possessed an extremely big, agile and pure-toned soprano voice which she was prepared to use unstintingly. (See, for instance, Michael Scott, ''The Record of Singing'', Volume One, pp. 38–40.) An adventurous artist, she embraced an enormously varied repertoire which included, among many other works, Aida, Wagner's ''Ring Cycle'' (as Brünnhilde), ''Tristan und Isolde'', ''Lohengrin'', ''La traviata'', ''Il trovatore'', ''La Gioconda'', ''Faust'', ''Les Huguenots'', ''Mignon'' and ''Le nozze di Figaro''. She established her worldwide reputation as an opera singer of the first magnitude despite facing powerful competition during her career from a number of other outstanding dramatic sopranos. Her main rivals included Lilli Lehmann, Rosa Sucher, Katharina Klafsky, Milka Ternina, Therese Malten, Johanna Gadski, Félia Litvinne, Olive Fremstad, Anna von Mildenburg and Emmy Destinn. By 1913, Nordica's voice and health were in decline. This did not prevent her from embarking misguidedly on a strenuous tour to Australia, which included singing Brünnhilde in Melbourne and Sydney, in the first complete performances of the ''Ring Cycle'' in Australia, with the Quinlan Opera Company.〔(Western Mail, 22 August 1913 ). Retrieved 9 December 2013〕 She nearly missed the ship leaving Sydney on her return, but wired the captain asking him to wait for her. It would prove to be a fatal mistake. The ''Tasman'' hit a coral reef, where it remained for three days, and Nordica suffered hypothermia (exposure) from which she never recovered. She was taken to Thursday Island, Queensland, where she was hospitalised for some time. There she befriended a small American boy who was taken ill while on a different vessel passing through Torres Strait. After his death, Nordica installed a gravestone in the local cemetery in his memory.〔(postscripts, Sunday, January 13, 2013, Lillian Nordica, 2: Unlucky in Love: CHRONICLES OF CROTON'S BOHEMIA ); Retrieved 11 August 2013〕 She was well enough on Thursday Island to make a new will, which disinherited her husband. (The Australian poet and novelist Thomas Shapcott dramatised these events in his 1998 novel ''Theatre of Darkness''.〔(National Library of AustraliaTheatre of darkness : Lillian Nordica as opera ); Retrieved 11 August 2013〕) She was then transferred to Batavia in the Dutch East Indies (now Jakarta, Indonesia). She lingered for months, seeming to improve, only to fail again. She died on May 10, 1914, in Batavia. Pneumonia carried her off in the end. Her birthplace in Farmington, Maine, is today the Nordica Memorial Homestead, a museum and historic site. Nordica Auditorium in Merrill Hall at the University of Maine at Farmington is named after her. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Lillian Nordica」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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