I have listen to alot of music, and a few days ago i was introduced to this music. This is just awful. No doubt she could sing, but why use a good and talented voice to screeming opera? This is not beautiful or wonderful........ Just ugly and awful.....
@slagelse77 see my comment above to hemming57. You are obviously too young and inexperienced to understand the context of this clip. If you are seriously interested in classical music, then take the opportunity to listen to many other excerpts of Kirsten Flagstad - the greatest soprano of the 20th century, uncontested - which are found on youtube.
@paulostroff99 Absolutely not! Ponselle is one of my absolute favorites but she was a fantastic lirico-spinto and thus not to be compared to a true Wagnerian dramatic soprano. Flagstad is generally known as "The Voice of the Century (Aarhundretets Stemme)", that's what I was referring to. Flagstad is my personal favorite, but after her Tebaldi and Ponselle really have a shared second place in my rankings.
@VivaRenata -Listen to her rosa ponselle -wagner here on you tube singing wagner's liebestod. Not at all bad for a non wagnerian already retired and aged.
Flagstad was easily a better Wagnerian singer if not the best female Wagnerian singer ever,but .that is the extent of it.Ponselle dwarfed her in the Italian masters and others.as well.
@paulostroff99 Ponselle came from vaudeville and had a full bodied opulent voice that was perfect for italian lyric opera, and she sang like it. Flagstad sang the italian masterpieces in her early career and it was during this time that the Met first noticed her. Ponselle on the other hand never sang Wagner on the stage, just didn't have the voice for it, she all but lost her upper register in the mid 30's. Flagstad dwarfed everyone at The Met in the one area that counted most, ticket sales.
@paulostroff99 Ponselle was great, maybe the 2nd greatest to ever grace the Met stage, but in the mid 1930's to early 1940's, whenever the Met put on a Gala event during those years Flagstad always sang last. Ponselle sang too but never last, she did not rule the Met stage as Flagstad did in those years. Great, great singers like Ponselle, Elizabeth Rethberg, Zinka Milanov, Helen Jepson, Bidu Sayao, Helen Traubel, Lily Pons all played 2nd fiddle to Flagstad during those years.
@hemming57 Begin by learning something about classical music. Then continue to learn something about opera and music-drama (Wagner). Once you've done that, learn something about the context of this particular clip, the "Great Broadcast Series". As you may have noticed, this clip was introduced by Bob Hope and it represents early films of what was essentially a vaudeville tradition. When you've caught up with all of this, then feel free to comment about the foremost soprano of the 20th century.
@ferociousgumby If that were the case, then why did she try to get her husband to leave NS? And why did she refuse to give any performances at events set up by the nazis? Why did she only give performances in countries not occupied by the germans? Even Gunnar Sønsteby - one of norway's most well known freedom fighters during the second world war, confirms that she was actively against nazism.
@ThSkBj Not only that, but her stepson, Henry Johansen Jr,, was a member of the Norwegian underground throughout WW2. If the Germans had ever caught HJ Jr, both Flagstad and her husband Henry Johansen Sr might not of survived the war. As it was Johansen Sr was arrested by the Gestapo during the occupation but was released after 8 days.
@ferociousgumby Well, many people have heard that. It takes a few seconds to send out a rumour, but many years to clear things up. A documentary released some years ago "Kirsten Flagstad´s Place" deals with this rumour and is an attempt to get the truth out to the public. There are many interesting books on the subject also, but most of them are in norwegian and reaches therefore a limited audience..
Superb Makes me want to learn the piece. I don't think it's bombastic - I think it is sublime. Perfect music for the drama with the perfect woman expressing the pure joy of going into battle. Super cool.
IHello richard63545 I know there is much more to singing than hitting high C's ( or B's) never mind. That's why e.g. I prefer Callas with her sometimes uggly notes to many of the socalled perfect voices. Kirsten was and is one of the greatest Wagnerian sopranos, but in this particular Johotoho, I have heard better. Did the test Johotoho contest, and there I chose Nilsson and Varnay.
@Chrissie19242 Definitely no hard feelings, that being said I never liked the Johotoho aria period. I'd rather listen to someone running their fingernails on a chalkboard or rub together two pieces of styrofoam. Worst thing Wagner ever wrote, and he wrote many, many great things. If you're into the non Wagner stuff Flagstad recorded, "Songs my Mother Taught Me" by Dvorak is on YouTube or "Ombra mai Fu" By Handel, or "Jeg Elsker Dig" By Grieg, or many songs by Richard Strauss she recorded. (:
I'm sorry, she may have been called the greatest wagnerian soprano of th 20th century, I largerly prefer Birgit Nilsson's voice. In comparison Kirsten's high b and c are harsh.
@Chrissie19242 Maybe you have wax in your ears? Anyway I will say that there is alot more to singing great opera that just hitting a hi c, which Flagstad did beautilfully until she was well into her 50's. I like Nilsson too but she never came close to Flagstad's incredibly smooth legato, command of line and tone, and beautiful middle and opper registers. Flagstad is the only soprano who could sing the entire Liebestod without shouting the more difficult notes in the tougher spots.
@Chrissie19242 On peut aimer les deux non ? Nilsson pour son aigu percutant, Flagstad poura voix d'airain, plus pleine. Mais, dans les deux cas, le jeu scénique était plutôt sommaire.
@levieuxpiano - Une voix d'airain. C'est le juste mot pour Flagstad que j'ai écouté dans Isolde ce week end. Merveilleux. He oui, le jeu scénique... je crains que l'on ne trouvait pas celà très important à l'époque. Alors que maintenant, quand on a vu le talent 'd'ACTEURS dans p.e. Le Ring de Ivo Van Hove, c'est époustouflant. Inimaginable que ces gens CHANTENT en plus. Naturel, comme au cinéma..
@Chrissie19242 you really can't judge her high notes from a clip from 1935. there's not enough real depth in the sound to say that her sound is harsh.
Absolutely the greatest Wagnerian Soprano of all time. Wonderful, Wonderful, Wonderful. She makes one love the rich, vibrance of the deeper soprano which is often underappreciated in favor of the coloratura.
@katieboyd1 I hate to say it but I agree with you, she may have been the greatest soprano that ever lived, but why why on earth did Hollywood, trying to capitalize on Flagstads immense popularity in the United States during the mid 30's to the start of WW2, have her sing on film one of the worst and bombastic pieces of music Wagner ever wrote is beyond me. Tristan, Tannhauser, The Flying Dutchman or even some Greig folk tunes would have been a much better choice.
there's always lucia popp, but except her i don't know anyone who can sing as well as kirsten flagstad... well done, it amazes me everytime I listen to it
i can appreciate the "myth" of Kirsten Flagstad, but i've never understood the hype about her. two of my five favorite singers, Nilsson and Sutherland, consistently adored her, but i just don't get it. i honestly don't hear anything exceptional about the voice. her contemporary, Helen Traubel, surpasses her in voice and talent in my opinion.
Amazing voice, but I do wonder if she did those stupid gestures with the spear in the theater or it was just something they wanted her to do for the movie. And I can't tell whether or not she does the trills here. I think it's just her vibrato, since I don't near the clean articulation that Leider does there.
This clip is from the movie" The Big Broadcast of 1938", typical Hollywood production of the time. People who heard her on stage singing never forgot her and Melchior. She would do 6 opera's a week sometimes. You can't find any singer today that would do that. Find and read her Bio.
Its unfortunate . Its the typical sterotype of Opera . " I Killed the rabbit , I killed the rabbit." . I lover her recordings of Schumman and Schubert songs.
La Flagstad è imparagonabile con la Crespin. Quest'ultima ha grandi difficoltà a cantare questo passo, lì dove la Flagstad mostra una facilità, una intonazione e un controllo della voce che sono a dir poco impressionanti. In più la voce è, per bellezza, omogeneità, potenza, la voce per eccellenza. Non esiste voce che possa paragonarsi a questa.
Northern mythology has nothing to do with nazism. The Northern Europe (were northern mythology is from) was occupide by German Nazis. Wagner BTW was not a nazi, but more a nationalist, and he was long dead before Hitler came. Hitler on the other hand interprated him as a nazi, and then he could use his music for whatever he wanted to build upon the cultural greatness of Germany..
@Prissie28 This is what I am trying to explain to many, many people around me who after many years still think I am a weirdo because I love Wagner's music.
@Prissie28 Yeah but everybody should know this for a fact without being told... Unfortunately most people don't. Then again, northern mythology has always been incorporated in Germany dating back to the ancient world and the germanic migration. It's saddening, that whenever a german composer or writer wrote about northern or germanic mythology, people go straight to the discussion about nazis. We have got an own various culture before this and don't always want to be measured on the 3rd Reich.
"northern mythology has always been incorporated in Germany" wouldn't be accurate.
There is no distinct point of separation, "northern mythology" IS Germanic mythology. With the Germans (as a regional variant) we simply have the added elements of continental influence; the root cultural stock remains the same, as in essence, the two people remain part of the same cultural meta-group.
Just nitpicking though, doesn't really change your point;)
@Prissie28 Aye this stuff has more to do with Thor and Odin than blackshirts. They simply highjacked the imigary to encourage a deluded and currupted kind of patriotism to get everyone on side.
I was suprisingly unimpressed. Perhaps the recording quality cuts out some of the higher register of her tone. That aside, the acting made me cringe. I would not recommend this clip as a good represtiontation of either Wagner or Ms. Flagstad
the feelings of arian supremacy have there roots in times before Wagner (people just don't turn into Nazis in one year), but that's just what I heard. personally, I think it's probably a stretch to say it.
You are so right! Just because the Nazi's showed operas, that are about Germans somehow or Northern Mythology (Carl Maria von Weber's Freischütz or any Wagner opera), it didn't mean that they are racists (I mean the composers).
Now I have listened to several pieces, not only Wagner, more trad. opera and lyrical pieces and compared and I declare, IMHO Flagstad had a fuller voice than Nilsson.
But who cares, they were just beyond fantastic the both of them!
To some here....to sing Wagner, you must outsing the orchestra, or just stick to Puccini or whatever.
It is unfair to compare Nilsson and Flagstad. Nilsson was younger and we have better recordings.
But singers can sing Wagner today too, believe me.
But there is nothing sadder than to hear some singing in the backgroung, as was the case when the Norwegian opera had a go at the ring in the 90's. But wow, Tennfjord as Wotan in the Rheingold, and Skram in the rest, blew me out of my seat! :-O
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This is little more than gaudy musical harlotry. It gives new meaning the the phrase "savage, incoherent bellowings". I would have ignored it but for the sound of the parlor furniture being smashed, bombs being thrown, and for the part where ten pianolas where hitched together all playing different tunes at the same time. I've heard more pleasant groans at my dentists office.
Some sort of bizarre portly dowager battledress I think. She always reminds me of a large fluffy goose struggling to take wing. This talented songstress has been assigned an almost Godlike status by her devotee's for the mere delivery of accurately assembled notes; how odd.
What ever slight imperfections one may wish to find, her's is the noblest sound I've ever heard produced by human voice. Period. I've just come from the the Met's Gotterdammerung and am YouTubing Flagstand: what more is there to say?
These days the Met doesn't even hope for beauty; just prays for most of the notes. No living singer can even stand in Flagstad's shadow.
Flagstad was absolutely the best there ever was in this fach. Maestro Walter Taussig at the Met, who heard her perform a great deal, used to say that the sound, while always feminine and beautiful, absolutely filled every square inch of the house as if it were coming from every direction at once. Her high notes are brilliant, never over-sung, truly pitched.
Actually Nilsson easily surpasses this because her voice were stronger, higher etc. Flagstads really high notes are always strained. BUT on the whole Flagstad is the greatest ever. Her lower notes were round, golden, beautiful, magical...
How sad that it ended with Nilsson. These spectacular supervoices aren't heard today. Marton and Dhimitreva were close by, but nowadays? Eaglen? Stemme? Voigt?Well...
During an interview Nilsson said that her voice was a small and very little voice in comparison to Flagstad's voice. She said: "My voice was a flute, Flagstad's voice was a orgue". Flagstad possessed high notes easier than Nilsson's ones. Bilsson had a lot of problems in singing this piece, where Flagstad shows an Incredible facility
@KathleenFerrier Yes, Nilsson's singing was marred by inflexibility because of pinching the tone. Flagstad sang with spontaneity, the mark of a great singer
Once again I feel struck listening to Flagstad "battlecry". A good singer friend of mine had to regret the impurity of the high C. True, much easier for others, first of all Nilsson to reach. But here we have a boldness, a majesty mixed with an elegance and velvet-like timbre that nobody else owns. And tough the slight imperfection of the last note, an amazing virtuosism. As for Hotter in the role of Wotan, there may be opposing views on them, but they remain unique!
one need not to close eyes on slight imperfections, especially when we're dealing with the great ones. And to me Flagstad is simply the greatest! Astonishing her recording from La Scala in 1951. She was quite old, but here high C (not too pure, also) almost covers the orchestra... and it was Furtwaengler conducting, not one who kept the orchestra down! :)
Kirsten was without a doubt the greatest Wagnerian soprano. We are fortunate to have these recordings, even if they are of rather dubious sound quality.
"its a battle cry !" When faced with a threat,one has the choice of flight or fight when the adrenalin kicks in.I would choose the former!Woman on the couch looks like Marlene Dietrich the morning after the night before.
"its a battle cry !" When faced with a threat,one has the choice of flight or fight when the adrenalin kicks in.I would choose the former!Woman on the couch looks like Marlene Dietrich the morning after the night before.
I never knew that beacuse of her husbands business dealings with the nazi's, and her remaining in Norway in the nazi period, she was blacklisted a time....even Toscanini refused her and chose Helen Traubel. It is on wikipedia.
Though singers today sing the octave jumps as if they are not connected notes, Wagner actually wrote a very deliberate portamento to be sung and the top notes very cut. Flagstad is singing it like Wagner wrote, even though we never hear it sung that way today. The upper C natural may be off, as it was not an easy note for her by this time. She would not sing the high C at the end of the Gotterdammerung prologue. Her B naturals are dead on pitch.
Ι like her smile the most!Amazing!
vassilopoula1 6 days ago
I find it amazing taht no other film of her in performance seems to exist.
ciroalb3 1 month ago
INCREDIBLE :-)
RoarJuul 2 months ago
Why must people keep responding to trolls? -_-
Parkerkun 4 months ago
I wish I could have seen her in preformance! Amazing!
RRydnew 4 months ago
I have listen to alot of music, and a few days ago i was introduced to this music. This is just awful. No doubt she could sing, but why use a good and talented voice to screeming opera? This is not beautiful or wonderful........ Just ugly and awful.....
slagelse77 5 months ago
@slagelse77 see my comment above to hemming57. You are obviously too young and inexperienced to understand the context of this clip. If you are seriously interested in classical music, then take the opportunity to listen to many other excerpts of Kirsten Flagstad - the greatest soprano of the 20th century, uncontested - which are found on youtube.
VivaRenata 5 months ago
@VivaRenata It's a joke!
hemming57 5 months ago
@VivaRenata -Anything wrong with Rosa Ponselle.
paulostroff99 4 months ago
@paulostroff99 Absolutely not! Ponselle is one of my absolute favorites but she was a fantastic lirico-spinto and thus not to be compared to a true Wagnerian dramatic soprano. Flagstad is generally known as "The Voice of the Century (Aarhundretets Stemme)", that's what I was referring to. Flagstad is my personal favorite, but after her Tebaldi and Ponselle really have a shared second place in my rankings.
VivaRenata 4 months ago
@VivaRenata -Gotcha.
paulostroff99 4 months ago
@VivaRenata -Listen to her rosa ponselle -wagner here on you tube singing wagner's liebestod. Not at all bad for a non wagnerian already retired and aged.
paulostroff99 4 months ago
@VivaRenata -Great.Should that word not read stimme and not shtemme,or is shtemme the plural of shtimme.
paulostroff99 4 months ago
Flagstad was easily a better Wagnerian singer if not the best female Wagnerian singer ever,but .that is the extent of it.Ponselle dwarfed her in the Italian masters and others.as well.
paulostroff99 4 months ago
@paulostroff99 Ponselle came from vaudeville and had a full bodied opulent voice that was perfect for italian lyric opera, and she sang like it. Flagstad sang the italian masterpieces in her early career and it was during this time that the Met first noticed her. Ponselle on the other hand never sang Wagner on the stage, just didn't have the voice for it, she all but lost her upper register in the mid 30's. Flagstad dwarfed everyone at The Met in the one area that counted most, ticket sales.
richard63545 3 months ago
@paulostroff99 Ponselle was great, maybe the 2nd greatest to ever grace the Met stage, but in the mid 1930's to early 1940's, whenever the Met put on a Gala event during those years Flagstad always sang last. Ponselle sang too but never last, she did not rule the Met stage as Flagstad did in those years. Great, great singers like Ponselle, Elizabeth Rethberg, Zinka Milanov, Helen Jepson, Bidu Sayao, Helen Traubel, Lily Pons all played 2nd fiddle to Flagstad during those years.
richard63545 4 months ago
It's wonderfull to see her in video !
MrArkadin 5 months ago
Bugs Bunny did it better!
hemming57 5 months ago
@hemming57 Begin by learning something about classical music. Then continue to learn something about opera and music-drama (Wagner). Once you've done that, learn something about the context of this particular clip, the "Great Broadcast Series". As you may have noticed, this clip was introduced by Bob Hope and it represents early films of what was essentially a vaudeville tradition. When you've caught up with all of this, then feel free to comment about the foremost soprano of the 20th century.
VivaRenata 5 months ago
It is interesting to know who did not like Flagstad.....I wish they could ever hear her live then express their baseless opinions
rubyedelman 6 months ago 2
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Sigfrid711 6 months ago
Desde Antonio machín creo que no ha habido cosa igual...
MrOedipusTyrannus 6 months ago
It happens only once.
Sigfrid711 6 months ago
Sing Flagstad, Sing!!
apocalypseinabox 7 months ago 2
i love the set
MrTetano 7 months ago
This is a great performance! Thanks for sharing :)
donZeriouS 8 months ago
a wild bob hope appears!
that alone has made me incredibly happy
knightsintodreams 8 months ago
I would have to say this performance is too fruity.
angryjalapeno 8 months ago
I heard she was a Nazi sympathizer.
ferociousgumby 8 months ago
@ferociousgumby If that were the case, then why did she try to get her husband to leave NS? And why did she refuse to give any performances at events set up by the nazis? Why did she only give performances in countries not occupied by the germans? Even Gunnar Sønsteby - one of norway's most well known freedom fighters during the second world war, confirms that she was actively against nazism.
ThSkBj 7 months ago
@ThSkBj Not only that, but her stepson, Henry Johansen Jr,, was a member of the Norwegian underground throughout WW2. If the Germans had ever caught HJ Jr, both Flagstad and her husband Henry Johansen Sr might not of survived the war. As it was Johansen Sr was arrested by the Gestapo during the occupation but was released after 8 days.
richard63545 7 months ago
@ferociousgumby
Would it make her a less talented singer if it were so?
lowenklee 7 months ago
@ferociousgumby Well, many people have heard that. It takes a few seconds to send out a rumour, but many years to clear things up. A documentary released some years ago "Kirsten Flagstad´s Place" deals with this rumour and is an attempt to get the truth out to the public. There are many interesting books on the subject also, but most of them are in norwegian and reaches therefore a limited audience..
Tiefland1913 6 months ago
the ultimate
scott12061972 8 months ago
Bob Hope's introduction is hilarious. So incongruous with Wagnerian epic perfection.
JackSafferyRowe 9 months ago
it make me laugh when he says about the Metropolitan Opera Company at 0:08
MrTetano 9 months ago
it make me laugh when he says about the Metropolitan Opera Company at 0:8
MrTetano 9 months ago
What an astress !!! (I'm being ironic)
But to defend her I would say that her costume does not help her...
Simdaperce 9 months ago
Wonderful artist !!!
She had voice, drive and a very natural talent.
Thanks for sharing
Greetings of a Canadian heldentenor
Pierre
opera1232010 9 months ago
GRANDIOS!!!!!!!!!
irmgardfuerst 10 months ago
Suberb rendition of a difficult aria. I have always felt that many parties underated Flagstad in the "Battle Cry" because she made it sound so easy.
chepin85 11 months ago 8
I live 15 minutes away from her birth place! :D
Birdizzz 11 months ago
The best Wagnerian Soprano....ever!
RRydnew 1 year ago 10
Comment removed
bonanplu 1 year ago 2
@bonanplu ever hear of "expressive intonation"? look it up
backpocketfoundation 11 months ago
@RRydnew Without a doubt!!!
barmanjoe 3 months ago
Superb Makes me want to learn the piece. I don't think it's bombastic - I think it is sublime. Perfect music for the drama with the perfect woman expressing the pure joy of going into battle. Super cool.
leslielandberg 1 year ago
What year is this from?
aediasse 1 year ago
@aediasse I believe it´s from 1935
Piacevole 1 year ago
@aediasse
It's the movie "The Big Broadcast of 1938," which came out, oddly enough, in 1938.
1tbo 1 year ago
@1tbo That IS odd ;-)
aediasse 1 year ago
I love this movie. Kirsten Flagstad starring with W.C. Fields, with Bob Hope singing Thanks for the Memories. Amazing.
walterglanz 1 year ago
IHello richard63545 I know there is much more to singing than hitting high C's ( or B's) never mind. That's why e.g. I prefer Callas with her sometimes uggly notes to many of the socalled perfect voices. Kirsten was and is one of the greatest Wagnerian sopranos, but in this particular Johotoho, I have heard better. Did the test Johotoho contest, and there I chose Nilsson and Varnay.
As to Isolde, you are right. She's marvellous.
No hard feelings?
Chrissie19242 1 year ago
@Chrissie19242 Definitely no hard feelings, that being said I never liked the Johotoho aria period. I'd rather listen to someone running their fingernails on a chalkboard or rub together two pieces of styrofoam. Worst thing Wagner ever wrote, and he wrote many, many great things. If you're into the non Wagner stuff Flagstad recorded, "Songs my Mother Taught Me" by Dvorak is on YouTube or "Ombra mai Fu" By Handel, or "Jeg Elsker Dig" By Grieg, or many songs by Richard Strauss she recorded. (:
richard63545 1 year ago
I'm sorry, she may have been called the greatest wagnerian soprano of th 20th century, I largerly prefer Birgit Nilsson's voice. In comparison Kirsten's high b and c are harsh.
Chrissie19242 1 year ago
@Chrissie19242 Maybe you have wax in your ears? Anyway I will say that there is alot more to singing great opera that just hitting a hi c, which Flagstad did beautilfully until she was well into her 50's. I like Nilsson too but she never came close to Flagstad's incredibly smooth legato, command of line and tone, and beautiful middle and opper registers. Flagstad is the only soprano who could sing the entire Liebestod without shouting the more difficult notes in the tougher spots.
richard63545 1 year ago
@Chrissie19242 On peut aimer les deux non ? Nilsson pour son aigu percutant, Flagstad poura voix d'airain, plus pleine. Mais, dans les deux cas, le jeu scénique était plutôt sommaire.
levieuxpiano 1 year ago
@levieuxpiano - Une voix d'airain. C'est le juste mot pour Flagstad que j'ai écouté dans Isolde ce week end. Merveilleux. He oui, le jeu scénique... je crains que l'on ne trouvait pas celà très important à l'époque. Alors que maintenant, quand on a vu le talent 'd'ACTEURS dans p.e. Le Ring de Ivo Van Hove, c'est époustouflant. Inimaginable que ces gens CHANTENT en plus. Naturel, comme au cinéma..
Chrissie19242 1 year ago
@Chrissie19242 you really can't judge her high notes from a clip from 1935. there's not enough real depth in the sound to say that her sound is harsh.
bcom11 9 months ago
@bcom11 You are right!
Chrissie19242 9 months ago
Absolutely the greatest Wagnerian Soprano of all time. Wonderful, Wonderful, Wonderful. She makes one love the rich, vibrance of the deeper soprano which is often underappreciated in favor of the coloratura.
Chutson353 1 year ago 3
in my honest opinion this woman looks like an absolute fool, depite her beautiful voice!
katieboyd1 1 year ago
@katieboyd1 I hate to say it but I agree with you, she may have been the greatest soprano that ever lived, but why why on earth did Hollywood, trying to capitalize on Flagstads immense popularity in the United States during the mid 30's to the start of WW2, have her sing on film one of the worst and bombastic pieces of music Wagner ever wrote is beyond me. Tristan, Tannhauser, The Flying Dutchman or even some Greig folk tunes would have been a much better choice.
richard63545 1 year ago
@katieboyd1
As Judge Judy says, "I'm not here for my good looks".
bairen2002 1 year ago
She had very strong vocals, one of the greatest singers in the world.
This song is a bit special and I love it.
She's got her own small "museum" right to where I live, in Hamar where she's from.
Siggulf 1 year ago
always a bit empty-headed for me - anyone home? what's with the spear? voice, yes, but..............
ketillflatnefur 1 year ago
there's always lucia popp, but except her i don't know anyone who can sing as well as kirsten flagstad... well done, it amazes me everytime I listen to it
jeebyboucky 1 year ago
What a badass. She just absolutely wrecked that tune. Incredible and untouchable. There will never be another like her.
capedcamish 1 year ago
i can appreciate the "myth" of Kirsten Flagstad, but i've never understood the hype about her. two of my five favorite singers, Nilsson and Sutherland, consistently adored her, but i just don't get it. i honestly don't hear anything exceptional about the voice. her contemporary, Helen Traubel, surpasses her in voice and talent in my opinion.
spinto12 1 year ago
@spinto12 -___________________-
AuthenticFeirce 1 year ago
see Flagstad singing is great and for Wagner so excellent!
sdegrace 1 year ago
A pity that's she plays with this spear...
It looks really a post synchronization, also. Would have loved to see her really singing, without all these smiles to the camera.
foropera 1 year ago
Amazing voice, but I do wonder if she did those stupid gestures with the spear in the theater or it was just something they wanted her to do for the movie. And I can't tell whether or not she does the trills here. I think it's just her vibrato, since I don't near the clean articulation that Leider does there.
Shahrdad 1 year ago
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Kirsten Flagstad had a ugly voice.
slagelse77 1 year ago
@slagelse77
if this is an ugly voice, I would like to know what you think is a beautiful one
raigekimaru 1 year ago
@raigekimaru Shania Twain, Sissel Kyrkjebø, Celine Dion and Josh Groban has beautiful voices.
slagelse77 2 weeks ago
@slagelse77 lol .
bach2984 2 weeks ago
@slagelse77 everybody back then had an ugly voice. XP
chicaboricua09 1 year ago
Bob Hope was Cute back then
MrJustin2782 1 year ago 2
This clip is from the movie" The Big Broadcast of 1938", typical Hollywood production of the time. People who heard her on stage singing never forgot her and Melchior. She would do 6 opera's a week sometimes. You can't find any singer today that would do that. Find and read her Bio.
Suz71bu 1 year ago
Its unfortunate . Its the typical sterotype of Opera . " I Killed the rabbit , I killed the rabbit." . I lover her recordings of Schumman and Schubert songs.
tenorismo 1 year ago
if only Stereo Recording is already developed during the early 1900's,, probably we can appreciate all the classic recordings better!!!.
tolitz11 1 year ago
I agree. I'm just imagining how stereo would sound "round bout 2:26 It's already so powerful and Eargasmic in mono... LOL
MrJustin2782 1 year ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
She looks like a silly kid holding the spear up and down. The singing is ok. I still prefer Regine Crespin.
ar1th2ur3 2 years ago
Did you just call Kirsten Flagstad okay?????
tenor220 2 years ago 4
La Flagstad è imparagonabile con la Crespin. Quest'ultima ha grandi difficoltà a cantare questo passo, lì dove la Flagstad mostra una facilità, una intonazione e un controllo della voce che sono a dir poco impressionanti. In più la voce è, per bellezza, omogeneità, potenza, la voce per eccellenza. Non esiste voce che possa paragonarsi a questa.
KathleenFerrier 1 year ago
Best singer in the History of Music!
Johnny1206 2 years ago
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This is brilliant!! A triumph.
JuneNJ 2 years ago
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This is horrible!! A disaster.
sscc587 2 years ago
best go on wikipedia before you ask who bob hope is. might as well insult george washington.
ed2313 2 years ago
Who is this man, I've never encountered a more annoying accent.
DottoreJojo 2 years ago
Is this the only video (that isn't just a record on you tube) of her. ?
DivaDeb1234 2 years ago
Northern mythology has nothing to do with nazism. The Northern Europe (were northern mythology is from) was occupide by German Nazis. Wagner BTW was not a nazi, but more a nationalist, and he was long dead before Hitler came. Hitler on the other hand interprated him as a nazi, and then he could use his music for whatever he wanted to build upon the cultural greatness of Germany..
Prissie28 2 years ago 43
@Prissie28
I think that Wagner was an advocate of pan-germanism - which the Nazis took to horrible extremes
aspergershawn 1 year ago
@Prissie28 This is what I am trying to explain to many, many people around me who after many years still think I am a weirdo because I love Wagner's music.
It's not easy being a "Wagnerian"!!
Chrissie19242 1 year ago
@Chrissie19242 : I know the feeling :)
voidptr 1 year ago
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@Prissie28 "The Northern Europe (were northern mythology is from) was occupide by German Nazis"? Nigga' please...
LesArmesDuTemps 1 year ago
@Prissie28 Yeah but everybody should know this for a fact without being told... Unfortunately most people don't. Then again, northern mythology has always been incorporated in Germany dating back to the ancient world and the germanic migration. It's saddening, that whenever a german composer or writer wrote about northern or germanic mythology, people go straight to the discussion about nazis. We have got an own various culture before this and don't always want to be measured on the 3rd Reich.
Moonblood84 10 months ago
@Moonblood84
"northern mythology has always been incorporated in Germany" wouldn't be accurate.
There is no distinct point of separation, "northern mythology" IS Germanic mythology. With the Germans (as a regional variant) we simply have the added elements of continental influence; the root cultural stock remains the same, as in essence, the two people remain part of the same cultural meta-group.
Just nitpicking though, doesn't really change your point;)
lowenklee 7 months ago
@Prissie28 Aye this stuff has more to do with Thor and Odin than blackshirts. They simply highjacked the imigary to encourage a deluded and currupted kind of patriotism to get everyone on side.
Thoughtland 6 months ago
Fashion disaster.
CeleryOfDissent 2 years ago
Wagner has always catered to bad taste in hats.... And revealed poor dentistry in the back molars!
2920Thomas 2 years ago
She sings like a hinge.
sizableone 2 years ago
Wagners music is better than it sounds.
sizableone 2 years ago
Mark Twain
2920Thomas 2 years ago
Buena interpretación la de Flagstad...!!!
morgulddt 2 years ago
I was suprisingly unimpressed. Perhaps the recording quality cuts out some of the higher register of her tone. That aside, the acting made me cringe. I would not recommend this clip as a good represtiontation of either Wagner or Ms. Flagstad
24yotenor 2 years ago
1)she sounds a tad bit hoarse in the upper register, but we probably just caught her on a bad day.
2) yes, the recording cuts our a ton of upper register quality
3) she was singing only 1 aria and it was at a dinner theatre, not much acting required
4) even without the top register at it's best, you can't beat that golden lower range :)
raigekimaru 2 years ago 2
senseless fidgeting and wobbling.
TheOnlyOriginalKebim 2 years ago 4
sorta interestin'-- C-; not for her performance, ergo for the tomfoolery
meleagrid 2 years ago 2
This is charming, if a little surreal. Die Walkure, as a nightclub act? Wagner surely would not approve.
JeeRant 2 years ago
I heard Wagner was a national socialist, I'm sure we do a lot of things he wouldn't approve of.
raigekimaru 2 years ago
Wagner was dead before that party was established in Germany.
Antoniac123 2 years ago 5
Ridiculous! How could he be a national socialist? That party was far from invented during Wagner's lifetime.
mrhenrikl 2 years ago 10
the feelings of arian supremacy have there roots in times before Wagner (people just don't turn into Nazis in one year), but that's just what I heard. personally, I think it's probably a stretch to say it.
raigekimaru 2 years ago
You are so right! Just because the Nazi's showed operas, that are about Germans somehow or Northern Mythology (Carl Maria von Weber's Freischütz or any Wagner opera), it didn't mean that they are racists (I mean the composers).
ElisabettaVS 2 years ago 2
I like how spear altitude corresponds to pitch...
clareite 2 years ago 6
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JeeRant 2 years ago
Now I have listened to several pieces, not only Wagner, more trad. opera and lyrical pieces and compared and I declare, IMHO Flagstad had a fuller voice than Nilsson.
But who cares, they were just beyond fantastic the both of them!
Paguridae 2 years ago 2
To some here....to sing Wagner, you must outsing the orchestra, or just stick to Puccini or whatever.
It is unfair to compare Nilsson and Flagstad. Nilsson was younger and we have better recordings.
But singers can sing Wagner today too, believe me.
But there is nothing sadder than to hear some singing in the backgroung, as was the case when the Norwegian opera had a go at the ring in the 90's. But wow, Tennfjord as Wotan in the Rheingold, and Skram in the rest, blew me out of my seat! :-O
Paguridae 2 years ago
Just kidding folk's, this chick can really belt out a song.
sizableone 2 years ago 2
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If I were married to this squawker I'd make darn sure her supper was ready when she arrived home at night.
sizableone 2 years ago
I liked the bit about 3:15.
sizableone 2 years ago
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karburasi 1 year ago
that's badass
papapizza 2 years ago 2
papapizza, The absolute crushing strengh of your reply exists in it's simplicity. I'm overwhelmed.
sizableone 2 years ago
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This is little more than gaudy musical harlotry. It gives new meaning the the phrase "savage, incoherent bellowings". I would have ignored it but for the sound of the parlor furniture being smashed, bombs being thrown, and for the part where ten pianolas where hitched together all playing different tunes at the same time. I've heard more pleasant groans at my dentists office.
sizableone 2 years ago
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This from a faggot. I knew I would find Judy Garland .
madisonelectronic 2 years ago
Her voice was wonderful !!!
I wish She lives :(
turkishwagnerian 2 years ago 3
Wow, some night club act!
Klinxor 2 years ago 4
Hva FAEN er det hun har på seg? :/
What the hell is she wearing?
avraks 2 years ago
Er det ikke en norsk nasjonal dregt?
aslom44 2 years ago
Nah, not at all... Lol. Just some weird, viking inspired thing, I believe.
avraks 2 years ago
Some sort of bizarre portly dowager battledress I think. She always reminds me of a large fluffy goose struggling to take wing. This talented songstress has been assigned an almost Godlike status by her devotee's for the mere delivery of accurately assembled notes; how odd.
sizableone 2 years ago
I wish I could be there!!!
risktakerdaito 2 years ago
Oh me too!
justinian693 2 years ago
that makes me feel so alive !!!
blackmetalfanNo99 2 years ago
What ever slight imperfections one may wish to find, her's is the noblest sound I've ever heard produced by human voice. Period. I've just come from the the Met's Gotterdammerung and am YouTubing Flagstand: what more is there to say?
dolcefico 2 years ago 4
"What more is there to say"? Why I think I say it all at the top of this page. lol.
sizableone 2 years ago
belíssimo!
Jolie028 2 years ago 6
she makes it sound as easy as happy birthday.
raigekimaru 2 years ago 29
@raigekimaru so say it SHOULD be! and many cannot! ;-)
nelsonpianista 1 year ago
These days the Met doesn't even hope for beauty; just prays for most of the notes. No living singer can even stand in Flagstad's shadow.
Flagstad was absolutely the best there ever was in this fach. Maestro Walter Taussig at the Met, who heard her perform a great deal, used to say that the sound, while always feminine and beautiful, absolutely filled every square inch of the house as if it were coming from every direction at once. Her high notes are brilliant, never over-sung, truly pitched.
rozgnatt 2 years ago 3
She's the greatest singer ever !!!
Johnny1206 2 years ago
Actually Nilsson easily surpasses this because her voice were stronger, higher etc. Flagstads really high notes are always strained. BUT on the whole Flagstad is the greatest ever. Her lower notes were round, golden, beautiful, magical...
How sad that it ended with Nilsson. These spectacular supervoices aren't heard today. Marton and Dhimitreva were close by, but nowadays? Eaglen? Stemme? Voigt?Well...
mozzrt 2 years ago 6
During an interview Nilsson said that her voice was a small and very little voice in comparison to Flagstad's voice. She said: "My voice was a flute, Flagstad's voice was a orgue". Flagstad possessed high notes easier than Nilsson's ones. Bilsson had a lot of problems in singing this piece, where Flagstad shows an Incredible facility
KathleenFerrier 1 year ago
@KathleenFerrier Yes, Nilsson's singing was marred by inflexibility because of pinching the tone. Flagstad sang with spontaneity, the mark of a great singer
796824 1 year ago
Orgasmico!
maeve2311 2 years ago
animal, no es un aria!!
LadyJuri89 2 years ago
with my spear and magic helmut.
drafe007 2 years ago 2
No she doesn't, she ain't heavy, she's like a brother to me..
zurapDOR 2 years ago
Once again I feel struck listening to Flagstad "battlecry". A good singer friend of mine had to regret the impurity of the high C. True, much easier for others, first of all Nilsson to reach. But here we have a boldness, a majesty mixed with an elegance and velvet-like timbre that nobody else owns. And tough the slight imperfection of the last note, an amazing virtuosism. As for Hotter in the role of Wotan, there may be opposing views on them, but they remain unique!
amfortas83 3 years ago
impurity on the high C? they sound good to me. everything else you said was right though ;D
raigekimaru 2 years ago
one need not to close eyes on slight imperfections, especially when we're dealing with the great ones. And to me Flagstad is simply the greatest! Astonishing her recording from La Scala in 1951. She was quite old, but here high C (not too pure, also) almost covers the orchestra... and it was Furtwaengler conducting, not one who kept the orchestra down! :)
amfortas83 2 years ago 3
I am not worthy...I am not worthy...I am not worthy...
tlh215 3 years ago 3
Kirsten was without a doubt the greatest Wagnerian soprano. We are fortunate to have these recordings, even if they are of rather dubious sound quality.
steverlfs 3 years ago 3
love her...
Sigfrid711 3 years ago
for such a large voice, it's relatively bright and pure.
raigekimaru 3 years ago
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Did I see a little man with a smal black moustache in the audience???
smitschagen 3 years ago
Probably your grand-father?
Jabe88 3 years ago
he got deported to a working camp so I guess it was the other guy in Berlin somewhere
smitschagen 3 years ago
off-topic.
But i think she is actually pretty cute too in this :p
hionmeth 3 years ago 2
Hehe.
So great that i can log into youtube and watch this video of a star one used to hear a lot about, but never could find a recording of at the store :)
This performance is great and the probably the best ever
hionmeth 3 years ago
The greatest Wagnerian soprano of the 20th century.The only piece of film?
lochness11 3 years ago
Nothin' thrills me like a Warrior Maiden singin' so gloriously ! Its not an aria,its a battle cry !
Lochness,do you like the tree as much as I do? In those days they didn't have cables on scenery, Note the woman on a couch in the audience !!
agingbeauty 3 years ago
"its a battle cry !" When faced with a threat,one has the choice of flight or fight when the adrenalin kicks in.I would choose the former!Woman on the couch looks like Marlene Dietrich the morning after the night before.
lochness11 3 years ago
"its a battle cry !" When faced with a threat,one has the choice of flight or fight when the adrenalin kicks in.I would choose the former!Woman on the couch looks like Marlene Dietrich the morning after the night before.
lochness11 3 years ago
But she is flat
vergoti20 3 years ago
Youyr mother
comey717 3 years ago
I never knew that beacuse of her husbands business dealings with the nazi's, and her remaining in Norway in the nazi period, she was blacklisted a time....even Toscanini refused her and chose Helen Traubel. It is on wikipedia.
j72050 3 years ago
Unfairly. VERY unfairly. Can you blame her for being a patriot even in times of darkness? She loved her native Norway, not the Nazi occupation.
Chrysothemis 3 years ago 2
Genius singing genius - just as it should be but rarely is!!!!!!!
AlexiouValenti 3 years ago
One of the true great Wagnerian Sopranos.
klarynn 3 years ago
the piveledge?
Richardtheincredible 3 years ago
Though singers today sing the octave jumps as if they are not connected notes, Wagner actually wrote a very deliberate portamento to be sung and the top notes very cut. Flagstad is singing it like Wagner wrote, even though we never hear it sung that way today. The upper C natural may be off, as it was not an easy note for her by this time. She would not sing the high C at the end of the Gotterdammerung prologue. Her B naturals are dead on pitch.
BDSCalgary 3 years ago 2
You are right BDSCalgary
claraprellitensky 3 years ago
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bonanplu 3 years ago 3