Word: flagstad
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Metropolitan Opera (Sat. 2 p.m., ABC). Alcestis, with Flagstad, Sullivan, Schoeffler, Pernerstorfer...
...scheduling the first performance of Alcestis in eleven years, General Manager Rudolf Bing had two ideas: !) he wanted to hear Gluck's somberly magnificent music again and 2) he cannily thought that the challenge of the big name part might be enough to induce Kirsten Flagstad to postpone her retirement one more year. He was right. Though she was tired after 23 years of singing Wagnerian roles, she was intrigued with the idea of learning a difficult new role at 56-and singing in English for the first time on the U.S. opera stage...
...Flagstad was statuesque in the white robes of the Grecian queen, yet touchingly human at the same time. As always, her voice filled the cavernous Met with its thrilling power. But it was also rich with an expressiveness that seems to grow more poignant with the years. Tenor Brian Sullivan sang his role of Admetus powerfully, if not always as cleanly as the classical style demands. The staging was a trifle fussy, and the corps de ballet postured like so many figures on a Grecian urn. But alongside the triumphs of the performance, the defects were minor. Top honors: Kirsten...
...Kirsten Flagstad...
...Kirsten Flagstad will return next season in a role she has never sung before: the title role in Gluck's Alceste (first & last Met performances: 1941). She will sing in English...