Elisabeth Frösslind

Elisabeth Frösslind
Oil painting by M. K. Cardon
Born	Elisabeth Kristina Frösslind 27 February 1793 Sweden
Died	24 October 1861 Sweden
Other names	Elise Frösslind, Elisabeth Lindström
Spouse(s)	Carl Gustaf Lindström

Kristina Elisabet Frösslind, also called Elise Frösslind, (27 February 1793 – 24 October 1861), was a Swedish opera singer and actor at the Royal Swedish Opera and the Royal Dramatic Theatre in . She was a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music (1817).

She belongs to the more well known singers and actors in Swedish history; she was one of the most celebrated singers after Henriette Widerberg, and as an actor, she was mentioned together with Charlotta Eriksson and Sara Torsslow.

Frösslind, whose father worked as a firefighter, was accepted as a student at the Opera after her father's death in 1804, at the age of eleven, where she was originally instructed by Karl August Steiler. She was housed in the student home at the principal Sofia Lovisa Gråå, who to the great dislike of choir master Wikström allowed the girls to see teenage boys. She was placed in the choir with two of her fellow students, Anna Sofia Sevelin and Justina Casagli, but when director Skjöldenbrand heard them sing, he ordered that they should be removed from the choir, so as not to damage their voices, and be given parts in the operas instead. The choir master Johan Fredrik Wikström, however, was still their teacher, as he was also the song master, and the director later described what made him discover Frösslind. It had come to his attention, that Wikström abused the girls. The director then called the girls in for questioning. They had chosen Elisabet Frösslind to speak for them. The director pretended he took Wikström's side, with the purpose of seeing how she would speak, phrase her defense and note her gestures, and he was moved by her way of defending herself and the others.

"We are poor girls", she said, "taken from misery, what hope have we for the future, if we do not take the opportunity to learn all we can? But we try as hard as we can, and still when his in a bad mind he beats us, if I dare say, without cause. Out of this we lose our courage, become doubtful and what is worse lose the hope and the pleasure to learn."