Sigrid Arnoldson (Soprano) (Stockholm, Sweden 20 March 1861 - Stockholm, Sweden 7 February 1943)

Her father, Oscar Arnoldson (1830-81), was a lyrical tenor of the Stockholm Opera. She received her first education by her father and by Fritz Arlberg in Stockholm. In the 1882-1983 season she gave in Sweden and in Norway her first concerts. Then she went on to further studies and studied singing under Moritz Strakosch, the brother-in-law and the teacher of the famous Adelina Patti, also with Mathilde Marchesi and with Désirée Artôt de Padilla. She undertook with the husband of the last-called teacher, Mariano Padilla y Ramos, a concert tour by the empire Austria. In 1885 she made her stage debut in Prague as Rosina in ‘’Il Barbiere di Siviglia’’ by G. Rossini. In 1886 she had a sensational success at the Imperial Opera in Moscow as Rosina in ‘’Il Barbiere di Siviglia’’. In 1887 she sang at the Drury Lane Theater in London, again the same part. The criticism called her New Swedish nightingale and successor of the unforgotten Jenny Lind. In 1886 she gave very successfull concert in Berlin, in 1887 she guested at the Opéra-Comique in Paris, also in her Swedish native country and in Denmark. The same year she appeared at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris.  In 1888 she made guest appearances and gave a recitals in Italy. In 1888 she sang at the Opéra Monte-Carlo the part of Mignon by A. Thomas (here she appeared again in 1891/1893/1902/ 1906) and gave guest performances in St. Petersburg, Warsaw, Amsterdam, the Hague and Basel. In the 1888-1894 seasons she regularly guested at the Covent Garden in London, in the 1891-1892 seasons and in 1902 she performed at the Opéra-Comique in Paris. In the1893-1894 season she was a member of the Metropolitan Opera in New York (debut: Baucis in ’’Philémon et Baucis’’ of C. Gounod in the New York première of this opera). She sang at this opera house also the queen Marguerite de Valois in ‘’Les Huguenots’’, Cherubino in ‘’Nozze di Figaro’’, Zerline in ‘’Don Giovanni’’, Nedda in ‘’Pagliacci’’ and Micaela in ‘’Carmen’’; in addition she appeared there in 1894 in the American première of J. Massenet’s ‘’Werther’’ as Sophie. The same role she created also in the London première of the opera (1894, Covent Garden opera). After her engagement at the Metropolitan Opera she undertook a big USA-concert tour. In the 1896-1897 season she made guest appearances at the Opernhaus of Frankfurt a. M., also in Leipzig and Bremen (within the scope of a Germany tour). Since 1889 almost every year she made guest appearances and sang in concerts in Russia. She also performed in Amsterdam, in the Hague and in Zurich (1895, as Carmen, Rosina and as Mignon, in 1900 as Carmen, Mignon and as a Marguerite in ‘’Faust’’ of C. Gounod), at the Opera House of Riga (1898), at the Stockholm Opera, at the Hofoper  in Berlin (1899) and at the German Theater in Prague. In the 1907-1909 seasons she was engaged again by the Dresden Hofoper. In the 1900-1911 seasons she appeared in Germany, Budapest, Lviv and in Switzerland. Probably she retired from the stage in 1911. Her stage repertoire included Juliette in ‘’Roméo et Juliette’’, Eudoxia in ‘’La Juive’’, Ophélie in ‘’Hamlet’’, the title role in ‘’Dinorah’’ of G. Meyerbeer, Marie in ‘’La Fille du régiment’’, Susanna in ‘’Figaros Hochzeit’’, Papagena in ‘’Zauberflöte’’, Oscar in ‘’Un Ballo in maschera’’, Violetta in ‘’La Traviata’’ and Tamara in ‘’Demon’’ of A. Rubinstein. In 1891 she received the Swedish order ‘’Litteris et artibus’’. In 1910 she became a member of the Stockholm Music Academy. Since 1911 she was a Swedish court singer. From 1912 to 1938 she worked as pedagogue in Vienna, later again in Stockholm. Married the impresario Maurice Fischof.

Chronology of some appearances

1885 Prague Opera

1886 Moscow Imperial Opera

1887 London Drury Lane Theater

1887 Paris Opéra-Comique

1887 Paris Théâtre Lyrique

1888 Opéra Monte-Carlo

1888-1894 London Covent Garden

1891 Opéra Monte-Carlo

1891 Paris Opéra-Comique

1892 Paris Opéra-Comique

1893 Opéra Monte-Carlo

1893-1984 New York Metropolitan Opera

1896-1897 Frankfurt a. M. Opernhaus

1902 Opéra Monte-Carlo

1902 Paris Opéra-Comique

1906 Opéra Monte-Carlo

RECORDINGS FOR SALE

G&T, Berlin 1906-06

Nozze di Figaro (Mozart): Voi che sapete 53465 1284r

Carmen (Bizet): Près des remparts de Séville 33609 1285r

Traviata (Verdi): Ah, fors'è lui 53467 1298r

Faust (Gounod): Air des bijoux 33613 1295r

Vêpres Siciliennes (Verdi): Mercè diletti amichi (Bolero) 53466 1289r

Sérénade (Gounod) 33611 1287r

Fjorton år (trad, arr Dannström) 83597 1296r

Gramophone, Berlin 1907-11-11

Barbiere di Siviglia (Rossini): Una voce poco fà 53517 3579r

Freischütz (Weber): Leise, leise 43972 3580r

Gramophone, Berlin 1910-05-06 

Manon (Massenet): Adieu, notre petite table 33798  10847L