Guðmunda Elíasdóttir

Guðmunda Elíasdóttir (23 January 1920 – 2 August 2015) was an Icelandic opera singer and film actress. She began studying the piano under Erla Benediktsson and first performed with the Íslendingafélagið choir. Guðmunda performed for the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, the Broadway Grand Opera Association and the National Theatre of Iceland. She also did minor acting roles in Icelandic films. Guðmunda was appointed Knight's Cross of the Icelandic Order of the Falcon and a biography of her written by Ingólfur Margeirsson was published in 1981.

Early life On 23 January 1920, Guðmunda was born in Bolungarvík, Iceland. She was the daughter of the Bolungarvik chairperson Elías Þórarinn Magnússon and the housewife Sigríður Jensdóttir. Guðmunda had fifteen siblings and half-siblings combined. She was brought up in Bolungarvik for the first six years of her life before moving with her family to Látur, Aðalvík, then to Ísafjörður, following the death of her father by drowning in a sea accident. She worked as a babysitter in her teenage years and taught children Icelandic folk and children's songs. She graduated in 1939. Guðmunda also performed on other albums such as on the 1949 Music Association Choir 78 rpm album and on the four-album collection on the Stefán Íslandi song Áfram veginn released in 1987. She was a candidate for election to the Althing in the 2013 Icelandic parliamentary election. Guðmunda was married first to the Danish master goldsmith Henrik Knudsen from 1943 to 1950 and then to the historian and writer Sverir Kristjánsson from early 1973 until his death in early 1977. There were three children of the first marriage. On 2 August 2015, she died at the Grund residential and nursing home in Reykjavík. Guðmunda was buried in Landakotskirkja, Reykjavik five days later.

Character

Bryndís Schram in Guðmunda's obituary in Morgunblaðið wrote: "Guðmunda Elíasdóttir was an important and ambitious woman, blessed with an unusual light-heartedness and serenity. Even the most serious issues had funny sides when they were discussed with Mum. She had great social intelligence in addition to other rich talents she received in the cradle."