Lisbeth Balslev
Encyclopedia
Lisbeth Balslev is a Danish
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 operatic soprano with an international career, especially in Wagnerian operas.

Balslev was born in Aabenraa
Aabenraa
The city of Aabenraa or Åbenrå , with a population of 15,760 , is situated at the head of the Aabenraa Fjord, an arm of the Little Belt, in Denmark, 38 miles north of the town of Schleswig. Its name originally meant "open beach"...

 and originally trained as a nurse. She then studied singing, first at the Academy of Music and Music Communication
Academy of Music and Music Communication (Esbjerg)
The Academy of Music and Music Communication is located in Esbjerg, Denmark. It was founded in 1946 as a local private initiatve as Vestjysk Musikkonservatorium and was in 1972 taken over by the Danish State....

 in Esbjerg
Esbjerg
Esbjerg Municipality is a municipality in Region of Southern Denmark on the west coast of the Jutland peninsula in southwest Denmark. Its mayor is Johnny Søtrup, from the Venstre political party...

, then at the opera academy of the Royal Danish Theater in Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...

. In 1976, she made her debut at the Royal Danish Theater as Yaroslavna in Prince Igor
Prince Igor
Prince Igor is an opera in four acts with a prologue. It was composed by Alexander Borodin. The composer adapted the libretto from the East Slavic epic The Lay of Igor's Host, which recounts the campaign of Russian prince Igor Svyatoslavich against the invading Polovtsian tribes in 1185...

.

After two years, Balslev left the Royal Danish Theater and had her international breakthrough as Senta in Harry Kupfer
Harry Kupfer
Harry Kupfer is a German opera director. He studied theatre in Leipzig and directed his first opera, Antonín Dvořák's Rusalka, in 1958....

's staging of Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer at the 1978 Bayreuth Festival
Bayreuth Festival
The Bayreuth Festival is a music festival held annually in Bayreuth, Germany, at which performances of operas by the 19th century German composer Richard Wagner are presented...

. From 1979 to 1983 she sang at the Hamburg State Opera
Hamburg State Opera
The Hamburg State Opera is one of the leading opera companies in Germany.Opera in Hamburg dates back to 2 January 1678 when the "Opern-Theatrum" was inaugurated with a performance of a biblical Singspiel by Johann Theile...

, after which she has worked freelance at La Scala
La Scala
La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...

, the Vienna State Opera
Vienna State Opera
The Vienna State Opera is an opera house – and opera company – with a history dating back to the mid-19th century. It is located in the centre of Vienna, Austria. It was originally called the Vienna Court Opera . In 1920, with the replacement of the Habsburg Monarchy by the First Austrian...

 and Bayreuth among others.

In addition to her professional work, Balslev was in 1992 among the founders of an organization which supports orphanages in Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

 and provides summer and Christmas vacations for the children.

Balslev has received several awards and honors, including Tagea Brandt Rejselegat
Tagea Brandt Rejselegat
The Tagea Brandt Rejselegat is awarded annually, on the 17 March.The scholarship was created and endowed by Danish industrialist Vilhelm Brandt in honor of his wife, Tagea...

 (1996) and the Reumert Prize, of which she was the first recipient (1999). In 1993, she was made a Dame of the Order of the Dannebrog
Order of the Dannebrog
The Order of the Dannebrog is an Order of Denmark, instituted in 1671 by Christian V. It resulted from a move in 1660 to break the absolutism of the nobility. The Order was only to comprise 50 noble Knights in one class plus the Master of the Order, i.e. the Danish monarch, and his sons...

.

External links

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