Kirsten Flagstad - Isolde's Narrative and Curse

[coryisawake]

That placement!

[andreernestgretry]

really inspired here, but, can you post the date of this recording please? thank you a lot...;-)

[richard63545]

I don't know the exact date but definitely from 1950. She made several Wagner recordings with Hongen in England in 1950. As great as this recording is, it's technical quality shows just how much Flagstad's voice had lost it's lustre compared to the mid to late 1930s. She still was a great singer at this point but the days of the "voice from god" performances were long gone. I will say the only singer who sang this better than Flagstad sings it here was Flagstad herself 10 or 15 years earlier.

[mannail888]

Again as I wrote on a different video, Flagstad makes a human being proud to be a human being.

[Zva26]

I've never heard Flagstad as intense and as searing as she is at the conclusion of this narrative. She was the possessor of the grandest and most glorious dramatic soprano of the entire Twentieth Century. Nilsson came close, but in the final analysis, I'd have to give the ultimate palm to Flagstad. The extreme top notes faded as time went on but the richness and beauty of the lower and middle never left her. Just listen to her final London/Decca recordings of the late 1950's..stupendous!!

[shaun20483]

The mezzo is Elizabeth Hôngen-next to Flagstad she sounds like a child! She was very respected in the German-speaking countries. Wish I could have heard Flagstad in the flesh! Che vergogna!

[arrassip31]

She is the better singer of all the times and to prove this only listen this music.

[Federicopera]

Warm and Beautiful!!!

[jkircher314]

Please, violinthief, can you tell us who the conductor and the Brangane are? The sound seems too good for it to be one of her live Met performances.... or is it?

I love Flagstad, especially her Isolde. For me, she is the perfect magical princess. I have many of her live Tristans with Melchior, her vocal soul mate.

I love the last photo of young Kirsten with the lace collar. Thank you so much for posting this.

[montanawagnerphile]

No more perfect a reading of the line ..."Er sah mir in die Augen"... exists (4:11 4:23).

[Johnny1206]

Flagstad is perfect, the proof of God's existence!

[viverito]

what year was this from? This does not sound like the studio recording with the Schwarzkopf high C's. These high C's sound like Flagstad herself.

[montanawagnerphile]

They're not C's, but B's. The two C's in the role come from Act Two, which is where Schwarzkopf appears. This is the EMI recording under Furtwangler.  Blanche Thebom sings Brangaene.

[hupolepsis81]

I think Brangeane is not Blanche Thebom (Blanche Thebom in Furtwangler recording is much, much better than this one! If it is Thebom here, she must have some big vocal problem). If anyone konw the exact cast, please, cite it here.

[VivaRenata]

@viverito Stop ranting about those unfortunately supplemented High C 8th notes - unless you know something. Those high C's occur in the introduction to the love duet of the second act. They are the only High C's in Tristan and there are none in this selection. Remember too, the extent to which studio recordings and even stage performances are manipulated in our days. It's a shame that Decca didn't inform that these short high C's were supplemented, that's why it was blown out of proportion.

[Operaddict]

Flagstad knew how to keep her tone round, no matter how dramatic the moment in the music. She had this incredible tone. Reviews of the time of her debut at the Met were over the top estatic. All agreed that this was THE GREATEST Isolde of all time. She still is!

[Federicopera]

Perfect!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Federicopera]

Please do upload anything with this geniius!!!! Many Thanks for this Blessing.

[weepingforbrunnhilde]

Mir laaaaaaaaaaaacht! das Abenteur!

Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaache­!

God, I can die now.

I mean my God.

[weepingforbrunnhilde]

Anyway, it just struck me listening to another recording that the depths of passion Kirsten reaches seem uncanny, given how normal she is.

But perhaps that's true for many of her generation...

(Why do comments get cut off after 500 characters?)

[weepingforbrunnhilde]

Anyone know much about Kirsten? I've read her biography and a couple other things and I just can't figure out where her passion comes from.

She's otherwise an eminently normal, "petty-bourgeois" Norwegian girl.

Polite, conservative, direct, simple.

Very much like Nora in a Doll's House. (Was Ibsin Norwegian or Swedish?)

[AVikingdad]

Ibsen was norwegian !

[mtv333]

Raaaaaaache! Tooooooood!

Toooooood uns beiden!

[Greatfan]

Flagstad approaches her Isode with a LIEDER LIKE delicacy. Nilsson was more agressive, a temperamental Isolde. Both approaches fit this wonderful role. For some Flagstad 's warmth can become a bit boring, for others Nilsson's heroicity can look as cold.

[weepingforbrunnhilde]

So well said. That's exactly my response to Birgit. I love her, but...

The *but* is precisely the coldness you describe.

I'm not quite sure I'm ready to follow Birgit to The Other Side.

Kirsten, never a question.

The warmth is the difference.

Thanks for putting your finger on that for me!

[astrotheme2007]

Flagstad was The Wagnerian dramatic soprano ever

Nilsson didnt had the vocal power of Flagstad

she was more lyric

you have to learn more about voices dear:)

[BeauTenor]

Hehe...You say that, but you're acting as though "lyric" is an apt description of Nilsson's voice, which it certainly is NOT. Nilsson's voice was more slender than Flagstad's, who had more amplitude and the more massive instrument. That being said, Nilsson could cut through any orchestra, and her voice would have registered every bit as glaringly as Flagstad's because it was so perfectly placed and was NEVER strained, particularly in the top register. Both were unique singers.

[Prometheus2013]

Nilsson cut the orchestra only in the top register Flagstad cut the orchestra at the top and at the low register. Nilsson was lyric-dramatic than Flagstad's Giant dramatic mezzo type voice. Mezzo Thebom sounds as child in front of the colossal Flagstad in this Isolde, if it was Nilsson she should sound lighter than Thebom

[hupolepsis81]

It is not Thebom and she deosnt sound like her! Compare with Furtwangler-Flagstad-Suthaus 1952 recording (with Philharmonia Orchestra). Blanche Thebom voice is rich, powerfull, colourfull et highly dramatic. A very good partner for Kirsten Flagstad and SHE DOESNT SOUND LIKE A CHILD!! (specially in "Da ich zur Stell'ihn"...; even her "r" in "Konig Markes Land" is different) In youtube version Brangane (thank you vilinthief for precising it) sounds rather like Blanche Thebom grandmother.

[Bquillamus]

@Greatfan You have got the Right Point!!! No one has described them better than you in any youtube posting here or elsewhere.

[Johnny1206]

There´s no other singer like her, she´s divine !

[weepingforbrunnhilde]

Oh, she really is.

Really, truly, no other word for it.

Exhibit A for proof of the existence of the numinous.