Word: flagstad
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...Swedish Wagnerian soprano strode on the Met's stage, and [was compared] to the 'incomparable' [Kirsten] Flagstad herself. The debutante: 41-year-old Birgit Nilsson, whose appearance in a new production of Tristan und Isolde touched off the kind of debut furor the Met's Wagnerians have not witnessed in a quarter-century ... A solid (5 ft. 8 in., 150 lbs.) and imposing woman, dramatic soprano Nilsson ... displayed a big, flashing, vibrant voice that galvanized her audience and conveyed an immediate sense of the turbulent passions that animate the role [of Isolde] ... Apparently a more severe critic of herself than...
...under contract to different labels, were never permitted to record together. There are David Oistrakh and Dimitri Mitropoulos in their nonpareil, rivetingly intense U.S. debut of Shostakovich's First Violin Concerto, and memorable farewells like the thrilling immolation scene from Wagner's Gotterdammerung in 1952 with Walter and Kirsten Flagstad in her last appearance with the Philharmonic, which had the audience applauding for 21 minutes. This set will have you applauding...
...hover over her career, like Barenboim and Levine, hope she sticks to her resolve. The fact is that, lovely as her voice is, it is not large. But 26 is very young. It is nearly impossible to predict how a voice will develop; the supreme Wagnerian Kirsten Flagstad sang operetta in her 20s. "You must never force," Bartoli insists. "The test is after the concert: Is the voice still fresh so that you could go on and on?" She certainly passed the test with Levine. When she auditioned for him, he let the session...
...KIRSTEN FLAGSTAD. LAURITZ MELCHIOR. (RCA Victor Vocal Series). These companion albums feature two legendary singers with the temperaments and voices to sing Wagner as he might have imagined it in his inner ear. The love duet from Tristan und Isolde (from the Melchior recording) is pure rapture...
...singing of Flagstad and Melchior should earn the album an honored place in any record collection. Sheer voice was their badge; yet what made them extraordinary was the uncanny way they could suggest a passion that was at once human and mythical. In particular, Flagstad's ability to float her tenderer notes was almost supernatural-and hard to forget...