The rolling green fields of Skåne, Sweden's southernmost province, are celebrated for the quality of their potatoes. In 1918, one particular farm close to the pretty town of Västra Karup on the 'Swedish Riviera' produced something rather less quotidian with the birth of soprano Birgit Nilsson. She became one of the last century's most celebrated singers, one in a line of great Scandinavian Wagnerians. Today, Nilsson's face features on the Swedish 500 krona note and she is remembered each year in the week-long Birgit Nilsson Dagarna ('Birgit Nilsson Days'), a festival of singing centered on what was once the Nilsson family farm.
Although Nilsson died in 2005, her spirit lives on in Västra Karup and nearby Båstad. When I visited last year, there were pictures of her everywhere and everyone appeared to be on first-name terms, in keeping with Nilsson's reputation as a warm, no-nonsense anti-diva. 'These are the same potatoes Birgit would have eaten!' someone beamed as they passed me a plate of them: small, delicious and covered in butter. "This is the spot where Birgit's mother was run over by a car,' another intoned solemnly. Nilsson's homeland is a homey, welcoming place deeply connected to the woman who put it on the map.
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