Christina Nilsson (August 20, 1843 – November 20, 1921) was a Swedish operatic soprano.

She was born Kristina Jonasdotter in the village of Sjöabol , near Växjö, Smalandia to Jonas Nilsson and Cajsa-Stina Månsdotter, who were peasants. She was discovered by a prominent civil servant when, aged fourteen, she was playing the violin at a market in Ljungby. He soon became her patron, enabling her to have vocal training. In 1860 she gave concerts in Stockholm and Uppsala. After four years' study in Paris, she had her operatic début 1864 as Violetta in Giuseppe Verdi's opera La Traviata at the Théâtre Lyrique, Paris. After this success she sang at major opera houses in London, St. Petersburg, Vienna and New York.

Nilsson married the French banker August Rouzeaud in 1882, and later the Spanish count Casa di Miranda in 1887. She died in Stockholm in 1921.

In correspondence, Nilsson often signed her first name as "Christine."

There are many similarities between Nilsson and the character of Christine Daaé in Gaston Leroux's novel Phantom of the Opera, and many believe Leroux based the character off of the real-life opera singer.[1]

Reference

• The Compelling: A Performance-Oriented Study of the Singer Christina Nilsson, Ingegerd Björklund, Göteborg, 2001