Word: flagstads
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Dates: during 1935-1935
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...Sieglinde in Die Walküre, Flagstad exhibited a voice so clear and powerful, so even throughout its range, so flawless in its phrasing that most critics went ecstatic. Four days later came Tristan und Isolde and all hats were in the air. Flagstad could sing. Though she indulged in no pyrotechnics, she was quietly effective as she raised the cup, offered the love potion to Tristan. Again at the end she reached rare heights when, with her voice still fresh and sure, she kneeled beside Tristan's body and sang the demanding Liebestod...
Thereafter whenever Flagstad sang, the house was crowded to the doors and Tristan und Isolde became the season's bestseller. Question on every side was where such a singer had been keeping herself. Answer was that for 20 years she had had an uneventful career in Norway, singing at the Oslo Opera house where her talent was taken for granted...
Temperamentally she was unable to push herself. As a child she sang arias because she liked to, not because she aspired to opera. Her mother who coached singers was responsible for her debut. Someone was needed for the role of Nuri in D'Albert's Tiefland. Flagstad learned the part in two days. After that she plodded along conscientiously, singing now in light opera, now in grand, taking what engagements she could get because she had a daughter to support by an early marriage which had proved unsuccessful...
...itinerant German Grand Opera in 1930. The German company had singers who were either worn out or third-rate. The scenery was shoddy, the orchestra ragged. For its first home-grown Ring, the San Francisco Opera is spending $80,000, importing such peerless Wagnerians as Soprano Kirsten Flagstad, Tenor Lauritz Melchior, Baritone Friedrich Schorr. Some $40,000 has been invested in scenery alone. There is a horrible, life-like dragon and a special new cloud machine which projects photographs of actual clouds on the backdrop...
Since the Metropolitan's public has always been notably conscious of performers rather than performances, Mr. Johnson's hope was safely backlogged by the fact that he has managed to re-engage the following "stars": Lawrence Tibbett, Gladys Swarthout, Lily Pons, Lotte Lehmann, Rosa Ponselle, Kirsten Flagstad, Lauritz Melchior. The roster of singers hired up to last week totalled 62, of whom 30 are U. S.-born...