Karoline "Kaja" Eide Hansen, known professionally as Eidé Norena (April 26, 1884 – November 13, 1968) was a Norwegian soprano. Born in

Horten is a town and municipality in Vestfold in Vestfold og Telemark county, Norway—located along the Oslofjord. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Horten. The municipality also includes the town of Åsgårdstrand an ...

, Norena studied in Oslo, Weimar, London, and Paris; her teachers included

Ellen Gulbranson Ellen Gulbranson (née Norgren) (4 March 1863 – 2 January 1947) was a Swedish operatic soprano with a strong, dramatic voice best suited to the works of Richard Wagner. She was a leading figure among the second generation of Bayreuth singers an ...

and

Raimund von zur-Mühlen Baron Raimund von zur-Mühlen (sometimes "Raymond", "Raimund von Zur Mühlen") (10 November 1854 in Uusna Manor (''Neu-Tennasilm''), Viljandi Parish (now in Viiratsi Parish), Viljandi County, Governorate of Livonia – 11 December 1931 in Wi ...

, and she received advice as well from Nellie Melba. She began her career as a concert singer before making her stage debut in ''

Orfeo ed Euridice ' (; French: '; English: ''Orpheus and Eurydice'') is an opera composed by Christoph Willibald Gluck, based on Orpheus, the myth of Orpheus and set to a libretto by Ranieri de' Calzabigi. It belongs to the genre of the ''azione teatrale'', mea ...

'' in Oslo. Soon thereafter she auditioned for

Arturo Toscanini Arturo Toscanini (; ; March 25, 1867January 16, 1957) was an Italian conductor. He was one of the most acclaimed and influential musicians of the late 19th and early 20th century, renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orch ...

, who hired her to sing at

La Scala La Scala (, , ; abbreviation in Italian of the official name ) is a famous opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the ' (New Royal-Ducal Theatre alla Scala). The premiere performan ...

. She sang at the Royal Opera House for several seasons, and from 1933 to 1938 she appeared at the Metropolitan Opera, bowing there in '' La bohème'' on February 9, 1933. For six seasons she was on the roster of the Chicago Civic Opera. Norena was highly regarded as an actress, having been trained by her onetime husband, Egil Eide, to whom she was married from 1909 until 1939. Highly regarded for her work in Italian roles, she was especially noted for her performances as Gilda and Desdemona. From 1925 to 1940, she lived in Paris. She left Paris in June 1940 before the Wehrmacht's arrival and departed to Geneva. She died in Monthey, Switzerland. Norena recorded a number of operatic excerpts over the course of her career; many of these performances are still available on compact disc.

External links

References

1884 births 1968 deaths Norwegian operatic sopranos 20th-century Norwegian women opera singers People from Horten People from Monthey {{Norway-opera-singer-stub