24 Facts About Elisabeth Olin

Elisabeth Olin nee Lillstrom was a Swedish opera singer and a music composer.

Elisabeth Olin performed the leading female role in the inauguration performance of the Royal Swedish Opera in 1773, and is referred to as the first Swedish opera prima donna.

Elisabeth Olin was the first female to be made Hovsangerska, and the first woman to become a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music.

Elisabeth Olin was the daughter of the musician Petter Lillstrom and the actress and singer Elisabeth Lillstrom.

Elisabeth Olin's parents were both engaged at the opera theater of Bollhuset, Sweden's first professional national stage, where her father was an organist in the theater orchestra, and her mother was one of the first professional actresses in Sweden, the prima donna of the theater and a member of the theater's board of directors.

Elisabeth Olin, then called Betty Lillstrom, debuted at the age of seven at Bollhuset in 1747 the part of Alfhild in Syrinx, called Sweden's first native Opera comique.

Elisabeth Olin was a popular child actor and described as a valuable member of the theater.

Elisabeth Olin was given singing lessons by Petter Stenborg, the leading actor of the Stenborg Troupe, and lessons in clavecin and music theory by Ferdinand Zellbell the Younger, conductor of the Royal orchestra.

Elisabeth Olin is believed to have been active as a professional concert singer since at least the late 1750s.

Elisabeth Olin was a popular singer at the concerts regularly performed at the Riddarhuset during the 1760s, where her earliest performance is noted to have taken place in a concert by her mentor Zellbell in 1761.

Elisabeth Olin married the official Gabriel Olin in 1760, with whom she had six children.

Elisabeth Olin's husband is described as proud of her and supportive of her career.

Elisabeth Olin managed to raise her salary two years later by threatening to resign, and after five years she demanded full salary as pension whenever she chose to retire.

Elisabeth Olin is likely to have received the highest salary any woman ever had been paid in 18th-century Sweden regardless of profession.

Elisabeth Olin made an occasional guest appearance in the Stenborg theatre, the theatre of Carl Stenborg and his father Petter Stenborg, her former mentor.

Elisabeth Olin was described as a beauty with a fine figure and suggestive eyes, with a musical and dramatic talent which was described as passionate and noble.

Elisabeth Olin was compared to Francesca Cuzzoni, Faustina Bordoni and Caterina Gabrielli.

Elisabeth Olin has been referred to as "Sweden's first dramatic artist", "The Swedish Mara".

Elisabeth Olin was for many years in a long term relationship with her colleague the opera singer Carl Stenborg, who was the son of her former mentor Petter Stenborg.

On one occasion, when Elisabeth Olin fell sick, Carl Stenborg was reportedly unwilling to play lover to her replacement Charlotte Eckerman until he was forced to by royal command.

Elisabeth Olin played the role of Mechtild in Birger jarl opposite Stenborg in Rikssalen in the Royal Palace, Stockholm during the wedding between Duke Charles and Hedwig Elizabeth Charlotte of Holstein-Gottorp in 1774.

Elisabeth Olin remained formally listed in the opera register until 1803.

Elisabeth Olin's most noted was at the wedding between King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden and Frederica of Baden, when she performed the role of Svea on the king's request.

Elisabeth Olin made her last performance at a concert in Riddarhuset in 1809, when she participated in the farewell concert for Carl Stenborg, which was his last performance before his retirement.