Swedish opera singer Nina Stemme has won the US$1 million prize awarded in memory of the Nordic nation’s legendary soprano Birgit Nilsson, the award’s panel of judges said on Tuesday.
Stemme was honored “for her interpretations of the dramatic soprano repertoire with her respect for the composer’s intentions, her tireless dedication to the dramatic soprano repertoire, and for being a great Wagnerian soprano of today,” the panel said in a statement.
She will receive her award in the presence of King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia at an Oct. 11 ceremony in Stockholm. The panel of judges includes Wagner’s great-granddaughter Eva Wagner-Pasquier, who is also the former co-director of the Bayreuth Festival, and former president of the Vienna Philharmonic, Clemens Hellsberg.
Photo courtesy of the Birgit Nilsson Prize
照片:碧爾姬‧妮爾森大獎提供
The Birgit Nilsson Prize of US$1 million, the largest given in the world of classical music, is awarded approximately every three years for outstanding achievement and major contribution to the field of opera or concert to a currently active singer, conductor, or an institution, such as an orchestra, a chorus, or an opera company. This prize acknowledges artists who have achieved and sustained the highest performance standards — documented by a long-standing record of faithful service to the intentions of the composer — and who have made a major contribution to the perpetuation of this art form.
Nilsson, who would have celebrated her 100th birthday on Thursday, was one of the most distinguished dramatic sopranos on the opera stage during the later half of the 20th century. The daughter of a Swedish farmer, she made her breakthrough at Milan’s legendary La Scala as Puccini’s cold Princess Turandot in 1958. In her prime, Nilsson was especially renowned for her penetrating voice and tremendous power in the high register, creating constant phenomena in her interpretations of the leading female roles in the operatic works of Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss, pieces notorious for demanding an exceptionally powerful voice and for the singer’s ability to project it in the auditorium, competing with a large orchestra. Self-taught, the legendary Swedish soprano had a formidable command throughout the vocal registers and a nuanced sense of musical understanding, perfectly equipping her for interpreting the lighter roles in Mozart’s operas.
(AFP, with additional reporting by Chang Ho-ming, Taipei times)
碧爾姬‧妮爾森大獎的評審團於週二公布,瑞典歌劇演唱家妮娜‧史坦梅贏得紀念妮爾森這位北歐傳奇女高音的一百萬美元大獎。
評審團在聲明中表示,史坦梅「因其對戲劇女高音曲目的詮釋,對作曲家意圖的尊重、對戲劇女高音曲目不遺餘力的貢獻,並作為一位今日的偉大華格納歌劇女高音」而獲得這份榮譽。
妮娜‧史坦梅將會在十月十一日於斯德哥爾摩舉行的頒獎典禮中,在瑞典國王卡爾十六世‧古斯塔夫以及王后希爾維亞的面前領取這份獎項。該獎項的評審團組成包括華格納的曾孫女,同時也是拜魯特音樂節的前任共同藝術總監伊娃‧華格納-帕斯奎爾,以及維也納愛樂的前任主席克萊門斯·哈爾斯堡。
獎金高達一百萬美元的碧爾姬‧妮爾森大獎是古典音樂世界中頒發金額最龐大的獎項,約每三年頒發一次,以肯定目前仍然活躍於樂壇中的聲樂家、指揮家,或是管弦樂團、合唱團,或歌劇製作團隊等音樂機構,彰顯他們在歌劇或音樂會領域中的傑出成就和重大貢獻。
在二十世紀下半葉的歌劇舞台上,妮爾森是聲譽最為顯赫的戲劇女高音之一,週四適逢她的百歲冥誕。一九五八年,出身於瑞典農家的妮爾森,在米蘭著名的歌劇聖地史卡拉劇院飾演普契尼歌劇中冷漠的杜蘭朵公主,就此突破樂壇重重競爭。在演唱生涯的最盛期,妮爾森以具有強烈穿透力的歌聲,以及演唱高音域時令人敬畏的巨大力度聞名,她對理查‧華格納與理查‧史特勞斯歌劇作品中女主角的詮釋亦每每造成樂壇轟動。這兩位作曲家的作品對聲樂家的苛求幾乎是惡名昭彰,不但要求極為宏亮的歌聲,也要求聲樂家必須將聲音清楚地投射到觀眾席中,而不被大編制的管弦樂團演奏蓋過。妮爾森這位自學的傳奇瑞典女高音,對於演唱音域的掌握程度令人嘆為觀止,對於音樂的理解亦能深入幽微之處,讓她也能夠完美地詮釋莫札特歌劇中相對輕巧的角色。
(台北時報章厚明編譯)
A: Artificial intelligence technology has been causing controversy lately: a student was caught cheating with AI to win the grand prize in an art contest. B: That’s so absurd. Does this mean that AI paints better than humans? A: Maybe. Luckily, the student was later disqualified. B: And more absurdly, it’s becoming more and more popular to use AI technology to “resurrect” people. A: Yeah, some netizens even posted videos featuring the late singer CoCo Lee, who was “resurrected” by them with AI software. A: 人工智慧的爭議不斷,有學生違規使用AI參加美術展,甚至贏得首獎。 B: 真誇張,這是不是代表AI比人類還強大? A: 或許吧,幸好得獎資格被取消。 B: 還有更誇張的︰讓死者重現的「AI復活」技術越來越熱門。 A: 對啊,還有網友製作已故歌后李玟「復活」的影片呢! (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)
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