Word: flagstad
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...that few singers have ever made her sound convincing. Wagner used to pace the floor in anguish while writing Brünnhilde's songs. Time and again he asked himself whether any woman alive would be equal to them. Last week's audience again marveled at Kirsten Flagstad's command of the role, the way she used her strong, rich voice to convey Brünnhilde's unutterable happiness with Siegfried, her rage at being betrayed, the grimness with which she sought his death...
...occasion to be photographed, critics an occasion to be lenient. Critics did not have to be lenient when, on Dec. 21, Manager Edward Johnson opened the season with a rattling good performance of Die Walkure. They were unable to be anything but enthusiastic when, two days later, Kirsten Flagstad sang Isolde with the miraculous freshness they had learned to expect from her. They were grateful to Manager Johnson for brushing up the ragged Met orchestra. When he began last fortnight to put on some of his second-string operas, critics sharpened their pencils and found cause for complaint...
...Tibbett. A German opera saved the week from mediocrity, when Wagner's Flying Dutchman was put on for the first time in five years. Save for Hans Clemens, who sang the Steersman in the last production, all the principals were new to the Metropolitan in their parts. Flagstad took the role of Senta for the first time in her career and made it unforgettable. Warmest praise went to Baritone Friedrich...
Whatever they thought of the spring season, people were more enthusiastic last winter than they had been since Depression. For this Soprano Kirsten Flagstad did more than her share. The big, blonde Norwegian had blazed overnight into Metropolitan supremacy in the last weeks of Gatti's reign. Hailed as one of the great Isoldes in history, she came to Johnson for her first full season, fortifying what was already the finest German wing in the world...
Like Bodanzky, the chunky guest conductor engaged Metropolitan stars to sing the title roles. He swelled the orchestra to 73, omitted Siegfried so that Flagstad would have a less arduous schedule, reversed the order of the operas so that Gotterddmmerung could be given on the Saturday it would not conflict with a big football game.* Graciously, he staggered performances so that stars could keep appointments elsewhere. Reiner clashed only once with Stage Director Armando Agnini, over a new $1,800 steam apparatus for Gotterddmmerung to help Valhalla go up realistically in flames & smoke. The conductor barred the steam because...