Word: fremstad
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1930-1939
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...success that it went on tour, in lumber wagons along dusty Kansas roads, to the neighboring towns of Salemsburg, Salina and New Gottland. Next year they did it again. The chorus grew, acquired a permanent orchestra and conductor, hired famous soloists like Lillian Nordica, Ernestine Schumann-Heink, Olive Fremstad. Lindsborg's annual Messiah became the biggest musical event in Kansas...
Throughout her career Fremstad retained this ability to work herself into a state of dramatic exaltation. But unlike most singers who have exerted a compelling emotional appeal, everything she accomplished was the result of grueling work. To learn English and to get some schooling, her father bound her out to a Minneapolis family. Great was the sensation when in later years the head of that household refused to pay for a ticket to hear a person sing who had been a "servant" in his family. In Minneapolis Fremstad gave her first formal concert, earned enough to go to Manhattan where...
...Manhattan's Metropolitan where she sang from 1903 to 1914 Fremstad was known as one of the greatest artists and one of the most difficult of all prima donnas. She had a proud, heroic type of beauty, a graceful swinging stride, beautifully molded arms which seemed to shape all the music she sang. Her voice was uneven but it was always deeply personal. And as a musician she was so sure that she was able to prompt any one who sang on the stage with her. Her impersonations seemed completely spontaneous, but they were all carefully considered before...
...Fremstad's voice showed occasional wear & tear, but when she left the Metropolitan in 1914 her star was high. Manager Giulo Gatti-Casazza invited her to return on her own terms if she would only relearn all her Wagner roles in English, on the mere chance that subscribers might be willing to accept great music if it was not sung in German. Fremstad refused. When the Wagner operas were reinstated after the War, her health was broken and since then she has been much too smart to attempt a feeble, worn-out comeback...
...Fremstad was not forced by financial needs to offer her costumes for sale last week. She seemed loathe to break her collection even for the Museum of the City of New York or the Metropolitan Opera, both avid for her famed Isolde costume. Most passe singers are more pathetic than impressive. But Fremstad defied pity when she stood among her relics. She wears pince-nez now. Her greying hair is piled high on her head. But the grand manner was still hers when a reporter queried her about the Elsa mantle, asked its age. Her eyes snapped then as they...