Soprano, born in Farmington, Maine, USA. She studied in Boston and began singing publicly in 1876. Following further studies in Milan, she made her operatic debut there in 1879 (and allowed her name to be changed to Nordica) and went on to successful appearances around Europe and England. Her Metropolitan Opera debut came in 1890, and there and elsewhere she was acclaimed above all for her Wagnerian roles. Leaving the Met in 1909, she made concert tours until her retirement (1913), and died in Java after a shipwreck.
Lillian Nordica (1857-1914), American operatic soprano, nee Norton, was born at Farmington, Maine, and trained as a singer at Boston, and later at Milan. As Madame Nordica she made her operatic debut at Brescia in 1879, and from that time took high rank among the prima donnas, appearing in all the principal capitals in Europe, including the Bayreuth Festival, and also in America, particularly at the Metropolitan Opera, where her frequent partner was Jean de Reszke. Nordica was enraged, but ended up with the upper hand: Brunnhilde was a disaster for Melba, and Nordica's role as a premier Wagnerian soprano was restored.
Lillian Nordica was an ambitious, adventurous singer, and had a huge repertoire, that included Aida, Brunnhilde in Wagner's Ring Cycle, Tristan und Isolde, La Traviata, Faust, Lohengrin, and Le Nozze di Figaro. Nordica can also be heard in some of the Mapleson Cylinders, where the size and flexibility of her voice can be better heard.
The Lillian Nordica biography, Yankee Diva, written by Ira Glackens, goes into great detail both about Nordica's successful operatic career and her disastrous personal life. Nordica married three times, (the middle one being to a minimally talented tenor named Zoltan Dome) and all the marriages were unhappy. The Tasman wrecked into a coral reef, where it remained for three days, and Nordica suffered from exposure and never recovered.
Despite her unfortunate personal life, Nordica was known as a kind and generous person.
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