Laura Gundersen

Laura Sofie Coucheron Gundersen (née Svendsen) (27 May 1832 – 25 December 1898) was a Norwegian actress, counted as the first native-born tragedienne, and also, in some aspect, as her country's first professional native actress and prima donna. She was associated with Christiania Theater from her debut in 1850 until her death, except for the seasons 1870-72, when she played at Møllergatens Theater.

Biography Laura Sofie Coucheron Svendsen was born in Bergen, Norway. Her parents were Jacob Buchmann Svendsen (1792–1840) and Beate Marie Coucheron (1799–1837). Both of her parents died while she was quite young. She had firm ambition to be an actor from her early years. In 1849, at the age of seventeen, she borrowed money from a relative and traveled to Christiania (now Oslo).

In 1864, she married actor Sigvard Gundersen (1842–1904). She starred as Svanhild, alongside her husband Sigvard as Falk, in the premiere of Henrik Ibsen's Love's Comedy at the Christiania Theatre in 1873. She played a long row of tragedies; one of the most famous was the premier of Bergljot, a melodrama with orchestra by Edvard Grieg in 1885. She also starred in Ibsen's and Bjørnson's contemporary dramas.

She played according to the Danish romantic tradition. Her employment was the start of a new age in the cultural history of Norway, and towards the end of the 19th century, Danish and foreign dominance were broken; from 1872, Norwegian was the language of the stage, and the Norwegian stage was taken over by Norwegian actors, who often favoured a more realistic way to play, a development that led to fewer parts for Gundersen in the end of the century.

She died in Oslo and is buried with her husband at Vår Frelsers gravlund.