Agnes Hvoslef

Born in Kristiania (now Oslo) on 4 April 1883,^[1] Hvoslef was daughter of Stener Johannes Stenerson Hanson and Agnes Dorthea Amundsen.^[2] In 1914 she married physician Hans Alfred Riddervold Hvoslef.^[3]

Hvoslef studied song in Copenhagen from 1898. Between 1903 and 1905 she studied with Ellen Gulbranson and Nina Grieg in Kristiania. She made her consert debut in Kristiania in 1905, a jubileum concert in the memory of composer Gustav Lange. She eventually also studied with Amalie Materna in Bayreuth.^[1]

Specializing in Richard Wagner's female characters, she had her opera debut as "Kundry" in Wagner's opera Parsifal at the Bayreuth Festival in 1906.^[1]

Assigned with the Royal opera in Dessau until 1914, her sopranic roles included "Elisabeth" in Tannhäuser, "Ortrud" in Lohengrin, and "Brünnhilde" in Die Walküre.^[1] Her performances in Norway included title roles in Verdi's Aida at Nationaltheatret, and in Bizet's Carmen at Den Nationale Scene in Bergen.^[1][2] In 1932 she staged Faust at Drammens Teater [no].^[3]

She was also a song pedagogue in Oslo.^[1]

Hvoslef was awarded the King's Medal of Merit in gold in 1951.^[4] She died in Oslo on 2 April 1970.^[1]