Flagstad, Kirsten

Flagstad, Kirsten (kĭr`stən flăg`stăd, Nor. khĭsh`tən fläg`stä), 1895–1962, Norwegian soprano. She made her debut in 1913 but sang only in Scandinavia until 1934, when she appeared at the Bayreuth Festival. In 1935 she made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, as Sieglinde in Wagner's Die Walküre and was soon acclaimed as the greatest living Wagnerian soprano. In 1941 she returned to Norway. From 1947 until 1953, when she retired, she sang in the United States and Europe.

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Flagstad, Kirsten (Marie)

(born July 12, 1895, Hamar, Nor.—died Dec. 7, 1962, Oslo) Norwegian soprano. Born to musician parents, she made her operatic debut in 1913. In 1934 she sang Sieglinde in Die Walküre and Gutrune in Götterdämmerung at Bayreuth. Recognized as the greatest Wagnerian soprano of her generation, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1935. With New York as her base, she toured widely until 1941, returning to Norway to be with her husband, a member of Vidkun Quisling's government. Though cleared of charges of collaboration with the Germans, her later U.S. appearances were controversial. She was the first director of the Royal Norwegian Opera (1958–60).

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Flagstad, Kirsten 

Born July 12, 1895, in Hamar; died Dec. 7, 1962, in Oslo. Norwegian operatic soprano.

Flagstad studied in Oslo and Stockholm. Her operatic career lasted from 1913 to 1953. She became well-known after her appearance in 1933 at the international music festival in Bayreuth. Flagstad was a soloist at the Metropolitan Opera in New York from 1935 to 1941 and 1951 to 1952 and at Covent Garden in London from 1936 to 1937 and 1948 to 1951; she also toured extensively as a concert singer. From 1958 to 1960 she managed the Norwegian Opera in Oslo, which she had founded. Flagstad’s best roles were Isolde and Brünnhilde in the operas of R. Wagner and Leonora in Beethoven’s Fidelio.