Vale

The wonderful Wagner soprano Birgit Nilsson has died at the age of 87. I was lucky enough to see her sing Isolde in Vienna in 1976 and, before that, in two concerts in Melbourne when she visited Australia for the opening of the Sydney Opera House in 1973.

Blessed with an extraordinary voice which could soar over the heaviest orchestration she also brought intelligence and humour to the often stuffy world of Wagner and Strauss opera. Truly a great voice of the twentieth century.