ELISABETH OLIN

'Elisabeth Olin', ''née Lillström'', (born December 1740 dead 26 March 1828) was one of the first professional female singers in Sweden, the first Swedish Opera- prima donna, a court-singer, an actress, and composer. Together with Jeanette Fredrique Löf, she was the most succesfull Swedish actress in the 18th century.
Her father, Petter Lillström, was a court musician, an organist, and played in the theatre orchestra in Bollhuset, and her mother Lisa Söderman-Lillström was one of the first professional native actresses in Sweden. Elisabeth Olin performed as a child-actor on the stage of Bollhuset in 1747 at the age of seven under the name Betty Lillström in the part of Alfhild, and was very popular, considered one of the most valuable members of the staff even though she was not an adult, but in 1753, the Theatre was reserved for the French troop hired by the queen, ending the first experiment of a national theater.
She received training from the leading Swedish actor Petter Stenborg, in singing, clavecin and theory by the court-chapel conductor Ferdinand Zellbell. It was most likely at one of his concerts at Riddarhuset that she made her debute, the date is however lost; she is believed to have ben active as a profesionell concert singer in the late 1750s. In 1760 she married Gabriel Olin (1728-1794). She appeared as a singer in concert in 1769, directed by Francesco Uttini, leader of the Italian Opera-troup in Bollhuset of 1754-1767 and Royal orchester conductor, and was at this point very popular among the nobility and often hired for private concerts. The preceding year, in 1768, she had published her own song composition.
She appeared before King Gustav III at the opening of parliament on the 18 January, 1773 in the part of the Sea Goddess Thetis with Carl Stenborg (the son of her former mentor, Petter Stenborg) in the opera play ''Thetis and Phelée'' and was a huge success, both with her voice and her beauty; she and the young idealistic Carl Stenborg (1752-1813), played lovers in this performance, and very convincingly, joined by her daughter, Betty Olin, who played Amor. She was described as beautiful, with great movements and a voice that engaged and enraptured; he was a beautiful blond youth with a lovely though not strong voice that was pronounced skilfully enough for everyone to hear and giving the Swedish language ''a new pleasure''. Gossip had it that they were most likely lovers in real life also. It is said that ''everyone knew of the tender relationship he had with Mrs Olin''; this was reputed to be a fact why she had accepted to participate, and the show played twice a week during a period of fourteen weeks for a full house every time. When she at one time was sick, Carl Stenborg was unwilling to play lover to her replacement Charlotta Eckerman until he was forced to by royal command.
The Swedish theatre had been made up of foreign companies and was more or less a matter for the court until this time, (except for a brief experiment from 1737-1753, where her parents was pioneers in the first try to start a native-speaking theatre). It was after this that the king decided to form a Swedish theatre, with Swedish actors, and thereby making theatre open to a public who could not understand the tongues of the foreign companies. Thus, the Swedish Opera was founded in 1773, and Elisabeth Olin was one of its pioneers. As she was married to an official, a Royal court secretary, it was not considered entirely proper for her to perform professionally, and the king then raised the prestige of the opera company by styling it "The Royal Opera" and appointed Elisabeth Olin first court-singer. Her husband is described as always very proud of her.
She was the celebrated court-singer in the many opera plays in the Royal Court theatre and an actress at the newly-founded opera in Stockholm. After only two years of employment, she managed to raise her salary by threatening to resign, and after five years, she demanded (and subsequently received) full salary as pension whenever she chose to retire. It seems most lightly, that she received the highest salary any woman ever had been payed at that time in Sweden, regardless of profession. In 1782 she was elected into the Royal Swedish Academy of Music, and in 1788 she became a member of the academy-committee. She was not only active at the Opera, but also at Stenborgska Teatern, the theatre of Carl Stenborg and his father.
She was described as a beauty with a fine figure and suggestive "snake-eyes", and her musical and dramatic talent is described as temperamental but noble. She hated competition and disliked to be substituted by her rival Lovisa Augusti, who was her replacement whenever she was sick or bore children - she had six children - and in 1784 she chose to resign. Her daughter, Elisabeth Olin the younger, had married her former lover Carl Stenborg, whom she was still in love with, which was traumatic for her, and she refused to compete with the new star of the Swedish Opera, the Danish-born Caroline Halle-Müller. (The latter was so favoured by the king that he asked her to return to her employment after having fled abroad to escape her creditors and gave her immunity from repaying her debts.) Elisabeth therefore retired, officially because of a knee-damage, and was replaced by Halle-Müller; she turnd in her resignation in 1782, but did not left until 1784. She was persuaded to give a last performance at a concert in Riddarhuset in 1809, the place where she had made her debute. Her voice was described as unchanged.
Elisabeth Olin was compared to Francesca Cuzzoni, Faustina Bordoni-Hasse and Caterina Gabrieli. She was the first singer to be called "The Swedish Nightingale", later a name associated with Jenny Lind, and it was widely considered that she could have as great a career as any of these singers if she had only wished to tour abroad, but she preferred to stay in Sweden.
Her daughter Betty Olin, called Elisabeth Olin the Younger, (1761-1816) also became a celebrated singer and toured with her husband in Copenhagen and Olso in 1794-1795.

Contents

See also

References

See also

★ Bollhuset

★ Charlotte Slottsberg

References

★ Alf Henriksson, "'Fram till Nybroplan'"

★ Carin Österberg "'Svenska Kvinnor'"

★ J. Flodmark, "'Elisabeth Olin och Carl Stenborg'" ''("Elisabeth Olin and Carl Stenborg")''

★ http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:EmH0F1Z7p0wJ:www.riddarhuset.se/jsp/admin/archive/sbdocarchive/Vetenskap_%2520Konst.pdf+elisabeth+olin+1740&hl=sv&ct=clnk&cd=5&gl=se