[1][2] During her student years she appeared in operas, including Gluck's Iphigenia in Aulis in 1954,[1] performed at the Drottningholm Palace Theatre, and Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea.
[1][6] Berit Jonsson made her debut at the Royal Swedish Opera in 1963 as Countess Almaviva in Mozart's Le nozze di figaro;[2] Göran Gentele was general manager, and Michael Gielen music director.
[7] A reviewer of the recording noted in 2002 that she had "a richly nuanced voice, a deep dramatic soprano with a resonant bottom extension capable of considerable projection.
[8] She was a member of the ensemble of the Royal Swedish Opera until 1972,[6] but still appeared as a guest, including in the title role of Salome by Richard Strauss in a 1982 production directed by Göran Järvefelt [sv].
[10] The company staged a Ring cycle regularly two or three times per year, conducted by Peter Schneider, with singers such as the mezzo-soprano Gwendolyn Killebrew, the tenor Manfred Jung, and the baritones Simon Estes and Norman Bailey.
[5] She returned for Isolde,[1] Brünnhilde in Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen staged by Götz Friedrich and conducted by Colin Davis,[2] and for Chrysothemis again between 1973 and 1975.
Designed by the Swedish Ingrid Rosell, they were mostly made from leather, obviously for a slender person, defying "the comic-book depictions of a heavyweight, armour-clad, helmeted Wagnerian diva".
[3] Lindholm made her debut at the Bayreuth Festival in 1967 as Venus in Tannhäuser,[3][13] in the last year of a production directed by Wieland Wagner and conducted by Berislav Klobučar.
[1] Lindholm performed regularly at the Vienna State Opera, from 1967 as Elsa in Wagner's Lohengrin, Leonore, Chrysothemis and Tosca, from 1968 as Brünnhilde, and from 1970 as Isolde.
[14] In 1971, during the Cold War, the company's production of Tristan und Isolde toured to the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow,[15] as the climax of a visit which also included Le nozze di Figaro and Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss.
[3][8] When Göran Gentele became general manager there, he planned her to perform the role of Cassandre in Les Troyens by Hector Berlioz, but the project failed due to his sudden death.
[2] At the Opéra de Marseille, she performed as Salome in 1980, alongside Bent Norup as Jochanaan,[17] and in 1983 the title role of Elektra [1] She appeared as the Dyer's Wife in Die Frau ohne Schatten by Richard Strauss at the Theater Bremen in 1991.
[2] An interviewer described her in as a "generous and unpretentious lady with a wry sense of humour, able to look back on her career philosophically and with a disarming perception of what she had achieved and also what not".
[2] In 2021, she published a memoir titled Hovsångerska - eller vad ska jag göra med den där jävla folkskolelärarinnan?
A reviewer from Gramophone noted: "They are joined by Berit Lindholm‚ making her Festival Hall début‚ in a noble account of Brünnhilde's Immolation scene‚ movingly richtoned‚ passionate‚ vocally secure and firm of line.