Kirsten Malfrid Flagstad (12 July 1895 – 7 December 1962) was a Norwegianopera singer, who was the outstandingWagnerian soprano of her era. Her triumphant debut in New York on 2 February 1935 is one of the legends of opera.Giulio Gatti-Casazza, the longstanding General Manager of theMetropolitan Opera said, “I have given America two great gifts —Caruso and Flagstad.”
Called "the voice of the century", she ranks among the greatest singers of the 20th century.Desmond Shawe-Taylor wrote of her in theNew Grove Dictionary of Opera: "No one within living memory surpassed her in sheer beauty and consistency of line and tone."
Flagstad was born inHamar, Norway, in her grandparents' home, now theKirsten Flagstad Museum. Though she never actually lived in Hamar, she always considered it her home town.[1] She was raised inOslo within a musical family; her fatherMichael Flagstad was a conductor and her motherMaja Flagstad a pianist. Their other children were also musicians: the conductor Ole Flagstad, pianist Lasse Flagstad, and sopranoKaren-Marie Flagstad.[2]
She received her early musical training in Oslo and made her stage debut at theNational Theatre, as Nuri inEugen d'Albert'sTiefland in 1913. Her first recordings were made between 1913 and 1915.[3]After further study inStockholm with Dr. Gillis Bratt, she pursued a career in opera and operetta in Norway. In 1919, she married her first husband Sigurd Hall and a year later gave birth to her only child, a daughter, Else Marie Hall. Later that year she signed up with the newly created Opera Comique in Oslo, under the direction of Alexander Varnay and Benno Singer. Varnay was the father of the famous sopranoAstrid Varnay. Flagstad's ability to learn roles quickly was noted, as it often took her only a few days to do so. She sang Desdemona oppositeLeo Slezak, Minnie, Amelia and other lesser roles at the Opera Comique.
She sang at the Stora Teatern ofGothenburg, Sweden, between 1928 and 1934, and made her debut there singing Agathe inDer Freischütz byWeber. In 1930, a revival ofNielsen'sSaul and David featured Flagstad singing the role ofMichal. On 31 May 1930 she married her second husband, the Norwegian industrialist and lumber merchant Henry Johansen, who subsequently helped her in expanding her career. In 1932 she made her debut inRodelinda byHandel.
After singing operetta and lyric roles such as Marguerite inFaust for over a decade, Flagstad decided to take on heavier operatic roles such asTosca andAida. The part of Aida helped to unleash Flagstad's dramatic abilities. In 1932, she took on the role of Isolde inRichard Wagner'sTristan und Isolde and appeared to have found her true voice.Ellen Gulbranson, a Swedish soprano at Bayreuth, persuadedWinifred Wagner to audition Flagstad for theBayreuth Festival. Flagstad sang minor roles in 1933, but at the next season in 1934, she sang the roles of Sieglinde inDie Walküre and Gutrune inGötterdämmerung at the Festival, oppositeFrida Leider as Brünnhilde.
Flagstad was first noticed byOtto Hermann Kahn, then chairman of the board of the Metropolitan Opera, on a trip to Scandinavia in 1929, and Met management made overtures soon after. Their letters were never answered, however. At the time, Flagstad had just met her soon to be second husband and had even briefly considered giving up opera altogether. Then, in the summer of 1934, when the Met needed a replacement forFrida Leider, Flagstad agreed to audition for conductorArtur Bodanzky and Met general managerGiulio Gatti-Casazza in St Moritz in August 1934, and she was engaged immediately. Upon leaving St Moritz, Bodanzky's parting words for Flagstad were "Come to New York as soon as you know these roles (Isolde, the three Brünnhildes, Leonore inFidelio, and the Marschallin inDer Rosenkavalier). And above all do not go and get fat! Your slender, youthful figure is not the least reason you were engaged."[4]
At the Met Flagstad became a pupil of vocal coachHermann Weigert, who prepared her for all her roles with the company. Her debut at theMet, as Sieglinde inDie Walküre on the afternoon of 2 February 1935, created a sensation, though it was not planned as a special event. By this time, after weeks of rehearsals, Met management already knew what they had, but they nonetheless decided on a low key debut. Flagstad was unknown in the United States at the time. The performance was, however, broadcast nationwide on the Met's weekly syndicated radio program, and the first inkling of the deluge of critical praise to come was given when intermission host and former Met starGeraldine Farrar discarded her prepared notes, overwhelmed by what she had just heard, and breathlessly announced that a new star had just been born. Days later, Flagstad sang Isolde, and later that month, she performed Brünnhilde inDie Walküre andGötterdämmerung for the first time. Before the end of the season, Flagstad sang Elsa inLohengrin, Elisabeth inTannhäuser, and her first Kundry inParsifal.
Almost overnight, she had established herself as the pre-eminent Wagnerian soprano of the era. It has been said that she saved the Metropolitan Opera from looming bankruptcy. Her performances, sometimes three or four a week in her early days at the Met, quickly sold out at the box office as soon as they went on sale. Her services to the Met were not from box office receipts alone; her nationwide personal appeals to radio listeners during Saturday matinee intermissions brought thousands of dollars in donations to the Met's coffers.[4]Fidelio (1936 and later) was her only non-Wagnerian role at the Met before the war. In 1935, she performed all three Brünnhildes in theSan Francisco Opera'sRing cycle. In 1937, she first appeared at theChicago City Opera Company.[5]
In 1936 and 1937, Flagstad performed the roles of Isolde, Brünnhilde, and Senta at theRoyal Opera House,Covent Garden, under SirThomas Beecham,Fritz Reiner andWilhelm Furtwängler, arousing as much enthusiasm there as she had in New York. She also toured Australia in 1938. Hollywood also tried to cash in on Flagstad fever, after her sudden popularity in the US in the mid-1930s, with her many appearances on NBC Radio, TheKraft Music Hall withBing Crosby, and regular appearances on CBS'sThe Ford Sunday Evening Hour. Though Flagstad was not interested in stardom or Hollywood contracts per se, she did make trips to Hollywood during the late 1930s for publicity photo shoots, public appearances, concerts at theHollywood Bowl, and she filmed a rendition of Brünnhilde's Battle Cry fromDie Walküre for the Hollywood variety show anthologyThe Big Broadcast of 1938, in which she was introduced to American film audiences byBob Hope. Flagstad andSonja Henie are the only two Norwegians to have their own stars on Hollywood's "Walk of Fame".
Her career at the Met, however, was not without its ups-and-downs. Flagstad got involved in a long-running feud withtenor co-starLauritz Melchior after Melchior took offense to some comments Flagstad made about "stupid publicity photos" during a game of bridge in Flagstad's hotel suite while the two were on tour together in Rochester, NY.[5] Present during the infamous bridge game were Flagstad, Melchior and his wife, andEdwin McArthur. Afterwards, Melchior fanned the flames further by insisting that there be no solo curtain calls for Flagstad when the two performed together. Audiences had no clue that, despite the marvelous and sometimes historic performances, the two never said a word to each other off stage for the next two years. It was Flagstad's husband Henry Johansen who finally brought the two together to make peace.
Flagstad also feuded with the Met's general manager,Edward Johnson, after conductor Artur Bodanzky's death, when she asked to be conducted for a few performances by her accompanist, Edwin McArthur, rather than by the Met's new conductorErich Leinsdorf. Flagstad had wanted this for McArthur, whom she had taken under her wing. Johnson refused and would not hear of it any further. Flagstad did get her way, though; she went over Johnson's head and discussed the matter with the Met's board of directors, particularlyDavid Sarnoff, RCA and NBC founder and chairman. It was Sarnoff who made the arrangements for McArthur to begin conducting Met productions on a limited basis.[5] Her relationship with Johnson improved, however; just before Flagstad left the Met in 1941, on the night of her 100th performance of Isolde, she received 100 roses, courtesy of Melchior and Johnson.
Having received repeated and cryptic cablegrams from her husband, who had returned to Norway a year and a half earlier, Flagstad was forced to consider leaving the United States in 1941. Though dismissing the political implications of the departure of someone of her fame from the United States to German-occupied Norway, it was nonetheless a difficult decision for her. She had many friends, colleagues, and of course many fans all over the US. Even more importantly, her 20-year-old daughter Else had married an American named Arthur Dusenberry and was living with her new husband on adude ranch in Bozeman, Montana. It was Edwin McArthur who gave the bride away at the wedding in Bozeman a year earlier. Nonetheless, against the best advice of her friends and colleagues, including former presidentHerbert Hoover, who pleaded with her to stay out of Europe, she returned to Norway via Lisbon, Madrid, Barcelona, Marseille, and Berlin in April, 1941.[5]
Though during the war she performed only in Sweden and Switzerland, countries not occupied by German forces, this fact did not temper the storm of public opinion that hurt her personally and professionally for the next several years.[6] Her husband was arrested after the war for profiteering during the occupation that involved his lumber business. This arrest, together with her decision to remain in occupied Norway, made her unpopular, particularly in the United States. Both the Norwegian ambassador and columnistWalter Winchell spoke out against her. In 1948, she performed several benefit concerts for the United Jewish Appeal. In defense of Flagstad's husband, Henry Johansen, after his death it was revealed that during the occupation he was arrested by theGestapo and held for eight days. Also, one of Johansen's sons by his first marriage, Henry Jr, had been a member of the Norwegian underground throughout the war.[4]
Flagstad eventually returned to the Metropolitan Opera, invited by its new general manager,Rudolf Bing, who was furiously criticized for this choice: "The greatest soprano of this century must sing in the world's greatest opera house", he replied.[7] She also returned to Covent Garden following its reopening in 1947 (a rare exception – the Opera House, in acute financial straits following the war-time closure, was attempting to build up a house company of English nationals, principally singing in English, in preference to expensive guest stars). In four consecutive seasons from 1948 to 1952, she sang in all her regular Wagnerian roles, including Kundry and Sieglinde. She toured South America in 1948 and returned to San Francisco in 1949, and finally returned to the Met. In the 1950–1951 season, although she was aged well into her 50s, Flagstad showed herself still in remarkable form as Isolde, Brünnhilde and Leonore.
Despite the great fanfare surrounding her return to the Met in early 1951, and her success in resuming her roles there, Flagstad decided that it would be her final year singing Wagner on the stage. She had gained quite a bit of weight since her pre-war years at the Met when she sang those long and physically demanding roles night after night. In 1950, when she accepted Bing's invitation, she felt she did not have the stamina she had had as a younger woman. She had also developed an arthritic hip in mid-1951 (and had to consult doctors in New York); this further made the operatic stage difficult for her, especially when singing Wagner. She gave her farewell operatic performance at the Met on 1 April 1952, not as Brünnhilde or Isolde but in the title role ofGluck'sAlceste, a role she had learnt in the war years in Norway. In London she appeared as Dido (another recently learnt role) inPurcell'sDido and Aeneas at theMermaid Theatre. To celebrate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, in July 1953 Madam Flagstad appeared as Dido in Bernard Miles reconstructed 'Globe Theatre' which was erected inside the Royal Exchange building in the City of London. I - Desmond Flanagan and another LAMDA student - Bill Horsley acted as stage-hands for the production, and actually pushed 'Queen Dido's Throne on to and off the stage area with the use of ropes and a pole):[8] the portrayal was recorded (in studio), and issued byEMI in January 1953 (see: Recordings). Her last operatic appearance was as Dido in Oslo on June 5, 1953.
She was a guest on theBBC radio showDesert Island Discs on 29 April 1952.[9]
During the post-war years, Flagstad was also responsible for the world premiere ofRichard Strauss'sFour Last Songs. Strauss had written the pieces during his exile in Switzerland following the war (like Flagstad, he had been vilified as a collaborator with the Nazis). He intended them to be premiered by Flagstad, though not because he had her voice in mind. (The songs are better suited to the lyric soprano voice he idealised throughout his life, as exemplified byElisabeth Schumann and ultimately his wifePauline de Ahna. Strauss, moreover, had heard praise for Flagstad over the years, but had not heard her sing in person since casting her as the soprano soloist in the 1933Bayreuth Festival performance of the Beethoven Choral Symphony.) It was, rather, out of sympathy for her difficulties. He sent Flagstad a letter, accompanied by a collection of his own works which he desired her to consider adding to her repertoire, and requested that she give the premiere – together with "a first-class conductor and ensemble" – of these four new orchestral lieder, at that point still in the publication process.
Flagstad accepted the commission, although Strauss did not live to see the premiere. As a conductor, she chose not McArthur (who, though an excellent piano accompanist, was not considered a ‘first-class’ orchestral conductor) butWilhelm Furtwängler (also experiencing the repercussions of suspect wartime conduct), and the pair choseWalter Legge'sPhilharmonia Orchestra, with which they both worked well, to provide the accompaniment. By the time of the premiere on 22 May 1950 at London's Royal Albert Hall, Flagstad was almost 55 years old. Her voice by this point was darker, heavier, and more inflexible than when she had sung for Strauss atBayreuth, and she was becoming reluctant to venture above the staff, as would be notoriously demonstrated in the recording ofTristan und Isolde two years later; the Strauss songs, particularly the Hesse settings, were thus not ideally suited to her resources, and she found herself tested to her limits. "Frühling" indeed, gave such trouble that Legge, in promoting the concert, was two days before the event advertising the Strauss as "three songs with orchestra". In the event, Flagstad rose to the occasion and included "Frühling" (excluding, however, the highest note), and the close of "Im Abendrot" was followed by a respectful silence in memory of Strauss. The concert, which aside from the Strauss songs consisted of Wagner (including Isolde'sLiebestod and Brünnhilde's Immolation), received favorable reviews; recordings of Flagstad's contributions were made from the radio broadcast, and are today commercially available. Flagstad added"September", "Beim Schlafengehen", and "Im Abendrot" to her repertoire, and recordings (technologically superior to those taken at the premiere) exist of these performed in concert; she did not, however, sing "Frühling" again.[10][11]
After her retirement from the stage, she continued to give concert performances and record – first for EMI setting down her definitive account of Isolde in the first commercially released account ofTristan und Isolde, and then forDecca Records. She even made somestereophonic recordings, including excerpts from Wagner's operas withHans Knappertsbusch andSir Georg Solti conducting theVienna Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1958, she sang the part of Fricka in Wagner'sDas Rheingold, the first instalment in Solti's complete stereophonic set of the Ring Cycle, released byDecca on LP and reel-to-reel tape. She also spent time mentoring young singers in her native country, including contraltoEva Gustavson.
From around 1952, when she gave her Met farewell, until her death 10 years later, Flagstad's health steadily deteriorated. She was in and out of hospitals on an increasing basis both in the number and the length of her stays for a variety of ailments. She even joked with an interviewer in 1958 that Oslo hospital had become her home away from home. From 1958 to 1960, Flagstad was the first Director of theNorwegian National Opera. In her last years she gave many benefit concerts throughout Norway. She was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer in 1960 and died of the disease on 7 December 1962. At her request she was buried in an unmarked grave inVestre Gravlund Cemetery in the Frogner borough of Oslo. The largest floral arrangement at her funeral was sent byLauritz Melchior.[4]
Flagstad sang many roles, especially in the early part of her career, before she became famous as a Wagnerian dramatic soprano. This is a list of her principal ones with role debut dates.[12]
TheKirsten Flagstad Museum inHamar, Norway, 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 100kroner bill and on the tail section ofNorwegian Air Shuttle planes.
"That voice! How can one describe it?" wrote opera criticHarold C. Schonberg in hisNew York Times obituary of Flagstad. "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." Incredibly, Flagstad sang the role of Isolde 70 times on the Met stage from 1935 to 1941, makingTristan und Isolde one of the greatest box office attractions in Metropolitan Opera history. Nine of those performances were Saturday matinee radio broadcasts.[13]
 | This sectiondoes notcite anysources. Please helpimprove this section byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged andremoved.(November 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
A comprehensive survey of her recordings was released in several volumes on the Simax label.
Her pre-war recordings, which show her voice in its freshest brilliance and clarity, include studio recordings of Wagner arias, Beethoven arias, and Grieg songs, as well as duets fromLohengrin,Parsifal, andTristan und Isolde with Lauritz Melchior. These have been reissued oncompact disc byRCA Victor, as well as onNaxos, Preiser andRomophone.
Many Metropolitan Opera broadcasts also survive and have circulated among collectors and more recently on CD. These include:
After World War II, many important studio recordings followed including:
Perhaps her most famous operatic recording is the 1952Tristan with Furtwängler, which has never been out of print. It is available from EMI and Naxos, among others. Because she was aged 57, she was unsure of her capacity to reach the top Cs in Act II, and agreed toElisabeth Schwarzkopf providing her voice for this purpose.[14] Another twoTristans of note are two live performances: from London on 18 May and 2 June 1936, withLauritz Melchior as Tristan,Emanuel List as Marke,Sabine Kalter as Brangäne, andHerbert Janssen as Kurwenal, conducted byFritz Reiner leading theLondon Philharmonic Orchestra, and from theTeatro Colón (Buenos Aires) on 20 August 1948, withSet Svanholm as Tristan,Viorica Ursuleac as Brangäne,Hans Hotter as Kurwenal, andLudwig Weber as Marke, conducted byErich Kleiber.
Two live concerts are of particular historical significance:
In 1956, she moved to Decca where in the autumn of her career further important studio recordings followed:
Almost to the end of her life, Flagstad continued to sing in fine voice, although she increasingly sang mezzo-soprano material or in a mezzo range: besides theRheingold Fricka (a mezzo role), Decca planned to cast her also as theWalkure Fricka and theGotterdammerung Waltraute for its complete Ring (in the event, both roles were sung byChrista Ludwig), and also to record her in Brahms’Four Serious Songs andAlto Rhapsody; that these plans were shelved only by her final illness and death stands as a testament to her superbly consistent vocal abilities, and to the respect and affection in which she was held to the end by record companies and the public.
And as her place, she chose the birthplace of Hamar.
Further reading
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
