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Kirsten
Flagstad was a Norwegian Diva of the highest degree, starting
out her career with such roles as Nedda, Mimí, and Marguerite, and
eventually transitioning to the only great Wagnerian soprano of her
generation, while simultaneously specializing in Purcell's Dido, Gluck's
Alceste, and Beethoven's Leonore, as well as popularizing the songs of
Grieg and Dørumsgaard. Whenever she appeared in one of her roles at
a new opera house, she would send a personal assistant to the management,
who told them step-by-step every stage movement that Flagstad would make
during the course of the performance! She once arrived late to an
orchestra rehearsal of Tristan und Isolde at Covent Garden, and
upon pulling up the opera house in her taxicab, heard her entrance music
being played from inside. She opened her mouth and sang, "Tristan!
Geliebter!" in a voice so loud and full that it stopped all activity
in the market around the Royal Opera House, while simultaneously being
heard perfectly well within the walls of the auditorium. After WWII,
in concert recitals of Wagner's music, Flagstad braved audiences of
college-age students who booed her, set off stink-bombs, and let out cries
of "Nazi! Nazi!" while she sang. Ernest Newman, who --
from the early 1900s on -- had heard all of the great Wagnerians, was once
quoted as saying, "Thank God I have lived long enough to hear
Flagstad!" |
