Kirsten Flagstad

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Lore & Background

Flagstad was born in Hamar, Norway, in her grandparents' home, now the Kirsten Flagstad Museum. Though she never actually lived in Hamar, she always considered it her home town. She was raised in Oslo within a musical family; her father Michael Flagstad was a conductor and her mother Maja Flagstad a pianist. Their other children were also musicians: the conductor Ole Flagstad, pianist Lasse Flagstad, and soprano Karen-Marie Flagstad. She made her stage debut at the National Theatre as Nuri in Eugen d'Albert's Tiefland in 1913. After further study in Stockholm with Dr. Gillis Bratt, she pursued a career in opera and operetta in Norway. In 1919, she married her first husband Sigurd Hall and a year later gave birth to her only child, a daughter, Else Marie Hall. Later that year she signed up with the newly created Opera Comique in Oslo. She sang at the Stora Teatern of Gothenburg, Sweden, between 1928 and 1934. On 31 May 1930 she married her second husband, the Norwegian industrialist and lumber merchant Henry Johansen, who subsequently helped her in expanding her career. In 1932, she took on the role of Isolde in Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde and appeared to have found her true voice. Ellen Gulbranson persuaded Winifred Wagner to audition Flagstad for the Bayreuth Festival. Flagstad sang minor roles in 1933, but at the next season in 1934, she sang the roles of Sieglinde in Die Walküre and Gutrune in Götterdämmerung at the Festival, opposite Frida Leider as Brünnhilde.

Reader's Guide

Flagstad's significance lies in her immediate and lasting impact at the Metropolitan Opera. She was first noticed by Otto Hermann Kahn on a trip to Scandinavia in 1929, but Met management's letters were never answered. In the summer of 1934, when the Met needed a replacement for Frida Leider, Flagstad agreed to audition for conductor Artur Bodanzky and Met general manager Giulio Gatti-Casazza in St Moritz in August 1934, and she was engaged immediately. Upon leaving St Moritz, Bodanzky's parting words were: 'Come to New York as soon as you know these roles (Isolde, the three Brünnhildes, Leonore in Fidelio, and the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier). And above all do not go and get fat! Your slender, youthful figure is not the least reason you were engaged.' Her debut as Sieglinde in Die Walküre on the afternoon of 2 February 1935 created a sensation. The performance was broadcast nationwide, and intermission host Geraldine Farrar discarded her prepared notes and breathlessly announced that a new star had just been born. Days later, Flagstad sang Isolde, and later that month, she performed Brünnhilde in Die Walküre and Götterdämmerung for the first time. Before the end of the season, she sang Elsa in Lohengrin, Elisabeth in Tannhäuser, and her first Kundry in Parsifal. It has been said that she saved the Metropolitan Opera from looming bankruptcy. Her performances quickly sold out, and her nationwide personal appeals to radio listeners brought thousands of dollars in donations to the Met's coffers. In 1936 and 1937, she performed at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, under Sir Thomas Beecham, Fritz Reiner and Wilhelm Furtwängler. She also toured Australia in 1938. Flagstad got involved in a long-running feud with tenor co-star Lauritz Melchior after Melchior took offense to comments Flagstad made about 'stupid publicity photos' during a game of bridge in Flagstad's hotel suite while on tour in Rochester, NY. Afterwards, Melchior insisted that there be no solo curtain calls for Flagstad when the two performed together. The two never said a word to each other off stage for the next two years. It was Flagstad's husband Henry Johansen who finally brought the two together to make peace. Flagstad also feuded with Met general manager Edward Johnson after conductor Artur Bodanzky's death, when she asked to be conducted by her accompanist Edwin McArthur. Johnson refused, but Flagstad went over his head to the Met's board of directors, particularly David Sarnoff, who made arrangements for McArthur to conduct on a limited basis. Just before Flagstad left the Met in 1941, on the night of her 100th performance of Isolde, she received 100 roses, courtesy of Melchior and Johnson.

Did You Know?

• Flagstad's debut at the Metropolitan Opera on 2 February 1935 was broadcast nationwide, and intermission host Geraldine Farrar discarded her prepared notes to announce that a new star had just been born.
• Giulio Gatti-Casazza, General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera, said, 'I have given America two great gifts — Caruso and Flagstad.'
• Flagstad and Sonja Henie are the only two Norwegians to have their own stars on Hollywood's 'Walk of Fame.'
• On the night of her 100th performance of Isolde at the Met in 1941, she received 100 roses from Lauritz Melchior and Edward Johnson, despite a long-running feud with Melchior.
• Flagstad's ability to learn roles quickly was noted, as it often took her only a few days to do so.