Elisabeth Olin née Lillström (December 1740 – 26 March 1828) was a Swedish opera singer and a music composer.

[2] As the stage profession had a low social status at the time, the king had difficulties in assembling educated native talents willing to form the pioneer staff of the opera.

In an attempt to solve the issue of status, King Gustav III named his opera the 'Royal Swedish Opera', made its staff formally a part of the Royal Household and jurisdiction of the king, gave the women employees (who as stage artists had lower status than men) higher salaries than their male colleagues, and named Elisabeth Olin Singer of the Royal Court of the First Rank.

She was granted the highest salary of any member of the Opera regardless of sex or position, and the king remarked, after the negotiations where finished: "She holds herself very expensive."

Elisabeth Olin performed the role of the Sea Goddess Thetis in Francesco Uttini's opera Thetis och Pélée in the inauguration of the Royal Swedish Opera on 18 January 1773, opposite Carl Stenborg as Pélée[6] and her daughter Betty Olin as Amor.

The French ambassador Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes expressed his surprise to see opera performed so fully upon its very foundation, and the Italian abbé Domenico Michelessi commented about the performance: "It is surprising to see eight actors, and nine of their retinue, who has never before seen opera, played with such insight of it, among them a youth [Carl Stenborg] and a lady [Elisabeth Olin], both of whom are worthy one of the best stage in Italy.

Elisabeth Olin was described as a beauty with a fine figure and suggestive eyes, with a musical and dramatic talent which was described as passionate and noble.

In the inauguration performance of the Royal Swedish Opera, Thetis och Pélée, Elisabeth Olin was praised for her beauty, her grace and her engaging voice, and Carl Stenborg as a beautiful blonde youth with a not strong but skillfully handled voice with the ability to give the Swedish "a new pleasure", and that they were able to portray lovers convincingly.

On one occasion, when Olin fell sick, Carl Stenborg was reportedly unwilling to play lover to her replacement Charlotte Eckerman until he was forced to by royal command.

[2] On a couple of occasions prior to the founding of the Royal Dramatic Theatre, the artists of the opera was asked to participate in speaking theater drama plays.

Her contract as the most privileged member of the opera, and her social status as being a member of the upper class and only participating after having all her terms met in the contract, meant that she could not be forced, but as director Zibet informed the king: "She is with no doubt too tender to wish to humiliate her lover by refusing to take part in a performance, in which he could not refuse to participate.

She played the role of Mechtild in Birger jarl opposite Stenborg in Rikssalen in the Royal Palace, Stockholm during the wedding between Duke Charles and Hedwig Elizabeth Charlotte of Holstein-Gottorp in 1774.

[citation needed] During Angelica Catalani's visit in Sweden in 1828, Elisabeth Olin performed privately for her to demonstrate her voice, just a couple of weeks before her death.