In passing

Birgit Nilsson, 87; Swedish soprano

Vastra Karup, Sweden Birgit Nilsson, considered the finest Wagnerian soprano of her generation, has died. She was 87.

Nilsson died Dec. 25, the Stockholm newspaper Svenska Dagbladet reported. The cause of death was not announced. It was her family’s wish that her death be kept secret until her funeral Wednesday in her native Vastra Karup, in southern Sweden.

The daughter of Swedish farmers, Nilsson became a leading interpreter of the heroines in Richard Wagner’s operas and sang those roles around the world. She became the essential Isolde, the mythic princess in Wagner’s “Tristan and Isolde,” and sang the role more than 200 times. She was equally well known as Brunnhilde, the daughter of a god in Wagner’s “Die Walkure,” “Gotterdammerung” and “Siegfried.”

Her rich, powerful voice was considered something of a phenomenon. She could dominate a full orchestra with astonishing force.

“Birgit was unique!” Metropolitan Opera Music Director James Levine said in a statement.

Nilsson rose to prominence at a time when opera flowed with memorable sopranos – Australia’s Joan Sutherland, Austria’s Leonie Rysanek and America’s Beverly Sills. She distinguished herself by making Wagnerian opera, the ultimate test of stamina, her calling card. She was sometimes compared to Norway’s legendary Kirsten Flagstad, the Wagnerian soprano some 20 years Nilsson’s senior. Both women had remarkably long careers. Nilsson performed in top voice for 40 years.

Nilsson became one of the highest paid singers in the field, in part because of the rarity of her skills and her great popularity. In Sweden the government issued a postage stamp showing her as Turandot. She received the Ilis Quorum medal, the highest honor given to a Swedish citizen.

William Byrne, 75; judge in Ellsberg case

Los Angeles William Matthew Byrne Jr., the federal judge who presided over the 1970s Pentagon Papers trial of Daniel Ellsberg, has died. He was 75.

Byrne died Thursday night at his home in Los Angeles, Alicemarie Stotler, chief judge of the federal court for the Los Angeles-based Central District, announced Friday. The cause of death was not given.

Although he worked as a federal prosecutor and was named in 1970 to head President Nixon’s Commission on Campus Unrest, Byrne is best remembered as the Pentagon Papers judge. He got the case the same year he arrived on the bench.

Military analyst Daniel Ellsberg and a co-defendant, Anthony J. Russo Jr., were charged with espionage, theft and conspiracy for leaking a secret study of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War that became known as the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times.

Byrne dismissed the case in 1973, ruling the government was guilty of misconduct, including a break-in at the office of Ellsberg’s Beverly Hills psychiatrist that was orchestrated by White House officials seeking to discredit him.

During the trial, it was disclosed that Byrne had twice met with top Nixon adviser John Ehrlichman to discuss an offer to become director of the FBI. Nixon, who had appointed Byrne to the federal bench, had himself met briefly with the judge at his Western White House in San Clemente where Ehrlichman made the offer.

Byrne said the trial was never discussed, adding he declined to consider any future government positions while the case was pending. But he received much criticism for even taking part in the meetings, and he never again was mentioned as a candidate for high public office.

He remained on the federal bench for the rest of his career and was chief judge of the Central District from 1994-98, the same position his father, William Byrne Sr., had held years before.