Lillian Nordica made her American opera debut in 1883 and her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1891. At the Metropolitan in New York, on February 4th, 1898, Nordica added another to her list of great roles: she sang the Brunnhilde of Die Walkure for the first time on any stage.
She told the New York Herald: "Brunnhilde in this music is a most trying role. Most of it ranges so low that it is best suited to a mezzo soprano; yet the Walkure Shout requires a high soprano. Yes, you must be so note perfect in that role that nothing can disconcert you."
She added, "And let me tell you that the nervousness a singer experiences in Wagner opera is wholly different from that which one feels in Italian opera. In the latter the public makes you nervous, but in a Wagner opera, the work is so enormous that the public is crowded out of the singer's thoughts and he or she is nervous about keeping time and pitch."
