THE TEN GREATEST SOPRANOS Heard Live 1 Kirsten Flagstad

This is a selection of videos of the Ten Greatest Sopranos I had the joy to hear in live performance. The order is simply when I first heard them. They are all from my impressionable student days, chosen because every one of these great singers gave performances as vivid to me now as when I first heard them. Every one was more than just a voice and they all sang, in their very different ways, so as to move, excite and enchant.

1 Kirsten Flagstad 1957
This was the year when I was suddenly overwhelmed by opera. I missed Callas in Norma by a couple of weeks but, astonishingly, Kirsten Flagstad's name appeared in the listing for that summer's Promenade Concerts. Surprisingly there was no difficulty in obtaining tickets by post.

Kirsten Flagstad was without any doubt the first truly great singer I heard. She appeared in the Albert Hall to sing Grieg songs wearing full Norwegian National Dress. She was accompanied by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and a stick thin Sir Malcolm Sargent in his shiny black tails.

Her voice was effortless, filling that vast space with ease and wrapping itself round one. A great organ is perhaps the only way to describe it, and a critic wrote that, at the age of 63, hers was "a voice almost undiminished".

I bought a full size print of this photograph from The TImes as a memento.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Great
• Sopranos
• heard
• live
• Kirsten
• Flagstad
• Grieg
• Songs

[CharlotteinWeimar]

"The Flagstad Manuscript" by Louis Biancoli explains everything. As I recall, Americans criticised her for returning in wartime to her home in Norway. Her husband, who early on had had quisling sympathies, later rejected them. However in 1945 he was imprisoned & died after a few months. Flagstad was never implicated & fortunately she sang on & overcame all setbacks. She was truly magnificent.

[CharlotteinWeimar]

Great comments are coming in. I love the one about the Uncle. So, if you heard this great singer live or people have told you their memories of live performances, please post them.

[polemius01]

What an amazing performance! Never saw her live, but I cherish her recordings. Such passion in this Grieg song, and such beautiful tone. Thank you for posting, Charlotte.

[basenjidiva]

Gorgeous timbre; absolutely luscious! A beautiful sound, huge, with great emotion and eloquence! One of the greatest!!!

Thank you for this wonderful posting! This, truly , is a special treat! Brava to both you and Flagstad!!!

[valdengo1]

..yes, and just the greatest soprano that ever lived......

[achantus1]

@fatalfflaw I know exactly what you mean. Me too!

[luvgal23]

how can u have a top 10 greatest soprano list and the woman with the most opera awards, ms leontyne price isn't included?

[achantus1]

A tragedy that she was branded as a nazi after the the war - she was not! "The

Voice of the Century", Yes, I agree. There will never be anyone like her. Sadly, few of her countrymen understood how great she was (quite recently, including me). The place she was born is considered to be "redneck" by many other Norwegians. But who cares? If she could sing like that, she could be from Hell itself!

[Tenortalker]

Unique and wonderful that singer with the magnificent tone and resonance-- Kirsten Flagstad. In the later years of her career she knew sadness as she was accused of Nazi sympathies. Her husband was an official in the war government in occupied Norway-- she was loyal to him, but no Nazi! This killed her great American career at the Met, but she was adored in the U.K. How tough to specialize in Wagner in those war years and just after. A towering talent andkind human being.

[Celticwomanfanpiano]

Lovely!

[timsuffolk]

It is interesting that number 2 on this list, Joan Sutherland, admired Flagstad more than any other!

[loboestepario24]

Pure glory... marvelous, marvelous singer, golden sound!

[fatalfflaw]

I know Poop about opera music, but this ladies voice makes me pee pee go boing boing boing!