Elisabeth Olin

Elisabeth Olin
Elisabeth Olin, 1780s
Born	December 1740
Died	26 March 1828 (1828-03-27) (aged 87)
Residence	Stockholm, Sweden
Other names	Elisabeth Lillström
Occupation	Opera singer, composer
Known for	Referred to as the first primadonna in her country
Spouse(s)	Gabriel Olin
Children	Betty Olin
Notes
Hovsångare, the first female member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music (1782)

Elisabeth Olin née Lillström (December 1740 – 26 March 1828), was a Swedish opera singer and a music composer. She 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. She was the first female to be made Hovsångerska (1773), and the first woman to become a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music (1782).

Her father, Petter Lillström, was a musician, an organist, and played in the theatre orchestra in Bollhuset. Her mother, Elisabeth Lillström, was one of the first professional native actresses in Sweden, the prima donna of the troupe and a member in the board of directors that run the theatre of Bollhuset from 1740 to 1753. Elisabeth Olin debuted as a child-actor on the stage of Bollhuset alongside her mother at the age of seven under the name Betty Lillström in the part of Alfhild in Syrinx in 1747, called Sweden's first native Opera comique, and was very popular, often described as 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. The parents of Olin then joined the Stenborg Troupe.

She received training from the leading Swedish actor, Petter Stenborg, in singing, and clavecin training and theory lessons by the court-chapel conductor Ferdinand Zellbell. It was most likely at one of his concerts at Riddarhuset that she made her debut, the date is however lost; she is believed to have been active as a professional concert singer in the late 1750s. In 1760 she married the official Gabriel Olin (1728–1794). The first time she was confirmed as a singer was at a concert by Zellbell in 1761, and she was a popular concert singer in the 1760s. She appeared as a singer in concert in 1769, directed by Francesco Uttini, leader of the Italian Opera-troupe in Bollhuset of 1754–1767 and Royal orchestra conductor, and was at this point very popular among the nobility and often hired for private concerts. In 1768, she published her own song composition; she was one of the Swedish composers who wrote one composition each for the collection Gustaviade. En hjältedikt i tolv sånger (1768) (English: "Gustaviade. A heroic poem of twelve songs"); Elisabeth Olin was responsible for composition number eight.