Elisabeth Frösslind

Kristina Elisabet "Elise" Frösslind (27 February 1793 – 24 October 1861) was a Swedish opera singer and stage actress at the Royal Swedish Opera and the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm. She was a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. She was known as a member of the elite of Swedish stage actors at the time: as a singer, she was compared to Henriette Widerberg, and as an actress, she was mentioned alongside Charlotta Eriksson and Sara Torsslow.

Life Elise Frösslind was the daughter of the firefighter Anders Frösslind (d. 1804) and Christina Ulvin and the only daughter of three children. She married Carl Gustaf Lindström with whom she had two sons and three daughters, notably the actress Emelie Frösslind.

Education Frösslind came from a poor home and was enrolled in the singing school of the Royal Swedish Opera by her mother after the death of her father, at the age of eleven. She was housed in the student home of Sofia Lovisa Gråå, and became the student of Karl August Steiler.

She was initially placed in the choir with Anna Sofia Sevelin and Justina Casagli, but when director Anders Fredrik Skjöldebrand heard them sing, he transferred them from the choir to avoid damage on their voices and arranged for them to be trained for opera roles instead.

Director Skjöldenbrand ended the affair with the dismissal of Wikström in his capacity as a song master with a reprimand of his lack of self-control and replaced him with Karl Magnus Craelius (teacher of Jenny Lind), under whose more kind guidance they made better progress. These girls were all to become famous: Frösslind and Sevelin nationally, and Justina Casagli internationally.

Career Elise Frösslind made her debut in the title role of the opera Cendrillon by Nicolo Isouard on the Royal Swedish Opera 23 February 1811. In contemporary press, the star actresses Sara Torsslow, Charlotta Eriksson and Elise Frösslind were compared to a rose or a tulip, a jasmine or a daisy, and a lily or a forget-me-not, by which Torsslow was claimed to represent "The Deeply Moving", Eriksson "The Sensitive Grace and Feminine Gracefulness" and Frösslind "The Timid Sweetness, Wit and Naivety".

She made her last performance on 7 November 1845 and retired with a modest pension. She is believed to have died of uterine cancer.

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