LUISA TETRAZZINI
SIOPRANO JUNE 29TH, 1871

Kirsten Flagstad was born in Hamar, Norway. Like so many outstanding singers, she grew up in a musically gifted family and indeed this soprano would be hailed the ‘voice of the century.’ Raised and nurtured in Oslo by her father Michael a conductor, her mother Maja a pianist and with her future musician siblings, brothers Ole a conductor and Lasse a pianist and her sister Karen- Marie also a Wagnerian soprano.

Flagstad made her debut in 1913 as Nuri in Eugen d’Albert’s Tiefland at the National Theatre in Oslo. Early recordings of her voice were taken at this young age between 1913 and 1915.^[1]

After singing opera and operetta at the Opera Comique for over a decade, which interestingly was co-directed by Alexander Varnay, the father of another Wagnerian soprano Astrid Varnay. It is also worth noting that at this time, Flagstad sang Desdemona to Leo Slezak’s Otello. As her career progressed she gravitated towards the heavier more dramatic soprano roles. Apparently it was the role of Aïda that unleashed the potential to ultimately find her true calling when she took on the role of Isolde in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde in 1932.

A fellow Scandinavian soprano Ellen Gulbranson brought Flagstad’s voice to the attention of Winifred Wagner who hired Flagstad to initially sing minor roles at Bayreuth in 1933. In the following season she sang Sieglinde in Die Walküre and Gutrune in Die Götterdammerung opposite Frida Leider as Brünnhilde.

A year later she was auditioned and engaged immediately by the Metropolitan Opera in New York who were looking for a replacement to sing the same repertoire as Frida Leider. Her svelte youthful appearance was an added bonus to her obvious vocal abilities and talent.

Her Metropolitan debut was a sensation, and almost overnight she had established herself as the pre-eminent Wagnerian soprano of the era. Her sometimes three or four performances a week in early days at the Met sold out weeks in advance and donations from her nationwide radio appeals during the intermission at Saturday matinees helped the Metropolitan Opera coffers from impending bankruptcy at this time. In 1935 she performed the three Brünnhildes in the Ring Cycle for San Francisco Opera. In 1936 and 1937 she performed the Wagnerian roles of Senta, Isolde and Brünnhilde at Covent Garden where she achieved the same fame and respect as she did in New York

Despite advice from friends and colleagues and even pleas from former President Herbert Hoover she returned to German occupied Norway in 1941 before the United States entered World War Two. TShe took this step to be reunited with her husband. The decision was certainly made more difficult as her 20 year old daughter was married to an American and living in Montana.^[2]

During this time she only sang in the non-occupied countries of Switzerland and Sweden. But the tide of public opinion damaged her reputation and she fell out of favour with the public.

After it reopened in 1947, Covent Garden despite being in dire financial straits, hired Flagstad for four consecutive seasons from 1948 to 1952, where she performed her Wagnerian roles, including Kundry and Sieglinde.

Back in America, public sentiment had not changed towards her. The new director of the Met, Rudolf Bing was lambasted for his decision to re-hire Flagstad in for the 1950-1951 season: “The greatest soprano of this century must sing in the world’s greatest opera house”, he retorted.^[3]

Well into her fifties, and feeling that she no longer possessed her previous stamina or health for the arduous Wagnerian roles, these appearances at the Met were to be her last. She gave her farewell performance at the Met in April 1952, though not as a Wagnerian heroine, but in the title role of Gluck’s Alceste. Her final public performance in the role of Purcell’s Dido from Dido and Aeneas was in London on the 5 July 1953.^[4]

She was a guest on the BBC’s radio show Desert Island Discs in 1952 and chose knitting needles and wool as her luxury items. Not dissimilar to another grand voice prima donna, Joan Sutherland who occupied herself with embroidery backstage.^[5]

Kirsten Flagstad’s vast recording catalogue and existing live recordings from the Metropolitan continue to be classic benchmarks and pay tribute to her greatest roles, even though some of her most enduring recordings were recorded after her prime. She immortalised Richard Strauß’ Vier Letzte Lieder (Four Last Songs) which Strauß himself had intended her to premiere, although he did not live long enough to hear the performance.

The recording label Decca had plans to record her singing the  mezzo-soprano Wagnerian repertoire of both Fricka roles in Das Rheingold and Die Götterdämmerung. Brahms Alto Rhapsody and Vier Ernste Lieder (Four Serious Songs) were also planned to be recorded, before she died in 1962, giving testament to her recording company’s respect for her and quality of a still consistent and extraordinary voice.

In his obituary, the New York Times opera critic, Harold C. Schonberg, wrote, “That voice! How can one describe it?” “It was enormous, but did not sound enormous because it was never pushed or out of placement. It had a rather cool silvery quality, and was handled instrumentally, almost as though a huge violin was emitting legato phrases.” ^[6]

Incredibly, Flagstad sang the role of Isolde 70 times on the Met stage from 1935 to 1941, making Tristan and Isolde one of the greatest box office attractions in Metropolitan Opera history  (Nine of those performances were Saturday matinee radio broadcasts.) ^[7].

The Kirsten Flagstad Museum in Hamar, Norway [8]), contains a private collection of opera artifacts. Her costumes draw special attention, and include several examples on loan from the Metropolitan Opera Archives. Her portrait appeared on the Norwegian 100 kroner bill^[9] and on the tail section of Norwegian Air Shuttle planes^[10].

Kirsten Flagstad painted on a Norwegian Air Shuttle airliner [10].