richard63545's channel

I could be wrong but, judging by the timbre of her voice, this sounds mid to late 30's to me. I don't think anyone ever sang this song any better.

@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 ...

Marvelous, just marvelous. That being said It would have been something to have a recording of her singing this when she was in her 20's, her voice had a much lighter lyrical quality to it then, before Verdi and Wagner.

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 ...

@Operaddict It's a little known fact that Flagstad would nod off on stage on occasion during the 3rd act when Isolde lays dead, or so Tristan thinks, while he sings for almost a half hour. Whether sleeping right before she sings the Liebestod or nipping from the cognac bottle during intermission,...

The greatest shame IMO is on the United States and the postwar american press and it's sadly ironic that although Flagstad never became an american citizen, all of her direct decendents living today are americans by birth. Imagine how they feel about the way their parent country treated their gra...

cont'd from below...just outside of Glacier NP, apparently a few weeks in the wilderness with those she loved was just what the doctor ordered. One memorable evening at dusk, the three were sitting down by the lakeshore surrounded by the majestic Rockies when all of a sudden Flagstad stood up and...

@Elgranbajo The ones I could pick out...Patrice Munsel and Zinka Milanov on the right side of the stage and Rise Stevens in a silver gown on the left.

Anyone know what year and where this was recorded, it sounds like Bodansky is conducting but it couldn't be because the recording quality is too good?

@Zva26 Flagstad was a voice for the ages, there will never be another in all of opera like her. That being said, my favorite recollection of Nilsson, was at the Mets 100th anniversary gala in 1983, I think. She basically brought the house down and stole the show, not too shabby for a "second rate...

@jhb134 Agree that MacArthur was OK, but there some great ones back in those days, Arthur Bodansky, Furtwangler, Klemperer, Fritz Reiner, Leinsdorf, to name a few.