A Norwegian opera singer Kirsten Malfrid Flagstad (July 12 1895 – December 7, 1962) was considered one of the greatest Wagnerian (dramatic) sopranos of the 20th century. Spell non the charismatic stage performing artist, she was admired for her voice's sheer tonal beauty & consistency of line & tone.

Flagstad was natural at Hamar in a musical personal; her father was conductor Michael Flagstad & her mother piano player Marie Flagstad Johnsrud. She received her early musical step by step videos within Oslo and made her stage debut at a National Theatre inside Oslo when Nuri inside Eugen d'Albert's Tiefland in 1913.

When farther learn around Stockholm, she began a career inside light opera around Norway. Inside 1921, she made an unspectacular tour of France & was engaged in the city theater of Göteborg, Sweden from 1928 to 1932.

When singing light operthe for in top a decade, Flagstad was positive to choose on supplementary good operatic roles, including at length Wagner. Inside 1932, she took on the role of Isolde & appeared to use incurred her avowedly voice. Ellen Gulbranson (1863-1946), the Norwegian soprano at Bayreuth, positive Winifred Wagner to audition Flagstad for Bayreuth. Flagstad was hired for bit part a number one month, so for the role of Sieglinde around Die Walküre.

Her Metropolitan Opera début as Sieglinde, broadcast countrywide in February 2, 1935, created a sensation. 4 years late, Flagstad sang Isolde, & late that year, she performed Brünhilde inside Die Walküre and Götterdämmerung for the first instance. Late that year, Flagstad sang Elsa, Elisabeth, & her number 1 Kundry. All but nightlong, she got established herself when a pre-leading Wagnerian soprano of the era. Fidelio (1936) was her only non-Wagnerian role at a Met prior to a war. It has been said that she saved up a Metropolitan Opera from either looming bankruptcy. Within 1936, she performed all terzetto Brünnhildes in the San Francisco Opera's Ring cycle. Around 1937, she appeared at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Within 1936 & 1937, Flagstad performed a roles of Isolde, Brünhilde & Senta at a Royal Opera House, Covent Garden under Sir Thomas Beecham, Fritz Reiner and Wilhelm Furtwängler, arousing as much enthusiasm there as around Future York.

Her rendition of the Ride of the Valkyries aria from Wagner's Die Walküre was captured on-screen inside the section of the anthology musical theater The Big Broadcast of 1938.

Within 1940, with a eruption of World War II, Flagstad returned to Norway to be by using her married man & remained there throughout a war. Although she never sang for a German occupiers, her married man was arrested for war profiteering when the war because he got sold the diapers to the Germans. He was already seriously sick & died shortly thenceforth, whereupon his estate was impounded per state. Although her have wartime record was loose from either disputation, Flagstad's link to to Norway in the period of the war & a certain political naiveté in her section created ill-feeling towards her, particularly in the United States.

In the period of little joe sequentially Covent Garden seasons, from either 1948 to 1951, Flagstad repeated all her regular Wagnerian roles, including Kundry & Sieglinde. It was likewise in the period of this period that she gave the world premier of Richard Strauss's Vier letzte Lieder under the baton of Wilhelm Furtwängler at the Royal Albert Hall. This legendary performance of Will 22, 1950, was captured in tape & is commercially available in todays world, although a healthy is unluckily quite unfortunate. She toured South America and also returned to San Francisco around 1948 however was non invited back to the Met until Sir Rudolph Bing became manager. inside the 1950-1951 year, although she wwhen swell into her 50s, Flagstad showed herself however in remarkable form as Isolde, Brünnhilde & Fidelio.

She gave her farewell performance at a Met in April 1, 1952 as the name part inside Glück's Alceste. Her final operatic performances wwhen as Purcell’s Dido at the Mermaid Theatre around London inside 1953, the performance that was recorded & issued by EMI.

When her retirement from either a stage, she continued to give concert performances & record. From either 1958 to 1960, Flagstad was the general manager of the Norwegian National Opera

Of her numerous recording, a complete Tristan und Isolde by owning Furtwängler is considered a finest representation of her interpretative art around its maturity. Her pre-war recordings, still, come said to showcase her voice inside its freshly brilliance & clarity. Late around life she recorded numerous songs, by Grieg & others, & which are actually grounds to believe of the voice that maintained its stable beauty when many years in the limelight.

Flagstad died around Oslo at a age of 67. Her portrait appears on the Norwegian 100 kroner bill.

a Kirsten Flagstad Museum around her birthplace contains the personal collection of opera artefact thought to become the largest in the globe. Her costumes draw favorite attention, since within her day, apiece singer travelled by having "her" Brünnhilde costume, etc.

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