Kirsten Flagstad: The Voice of the Century Who Saved the Metropolitan Opera
In short: Hailed as the greatest Wagnerian soprano of her era, Kirsten Flagstad arrived at the Metropolitan Opera as an unknown in 1935. Her sensational debut not only launched a legendary career but reportedly rescued the institution from bankruptcy. Yet, her life was marked by intense feuds, wartime controversy, and personal sacrifice.
Born in Hamar, Norway, in 1895, Kirsten Flagstad emerged from a musical family to become a global icon. After years of singing lyric roles and operetta, she discovered her true dramatic voice in the early 1930s through Wagnerian roles like Isolde. Her 1935 Metropolitan Opera debut in Die Walküre was so transformative that radio host Geraldine Farrar famously discarded her notes, declaring a new star born on air. Flagstad’s impact was immediate; she became the pre-eminent soprano of her time, selling out performances and personally soliciting donations that bolstered the Met’s finances during a period of looming insolvency.
Despite her professional triumphs, Flagstad’s career was fraught with interpersonal conflict. She famously engaged in a two-year silent feud with tenor Lauritz Melchior following a trivial disagreement during a bridge game, and she battled Met management to secure conducting opportunities for her protégé, Edwin McArthur. Her decision to return to German-occupied Norway in 1941, leaving behind her American-based daughter and ignoring advice from figures like Herbert Hoover, sparked a severe public backlash. This controversy, compounded by her husband Henry Johansen’s post-war arrest for wartime profiteering, cast a long shadow over her reputation, particularly in the United States.
In her later years, Flagstad demonstrated remarkable resilience. She returned to the world's great stages under the invitation of Rudolf Bing, who insisted that the century's greatest soprano belonged at the Met. She also championed Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs, premiering them in 1950 despite the composer’s own wartime vilification. Even as her health declined due to an arthritic hip and eventually bone marrow cancer, she served as the first Director of the Norwegian National Opera. Flagstad died in 1962, leaving behind a legacy of unparalleled vocal consistency and a complex history that remains a testament to the intersection of art and global upheaval.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: Kirsten Flagstad
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