Kirsten Flagstad - Liebestod - London 1948

Kirsten Flagstad sings the Liebestod from Tristan and Isolde. This time the microphones are better than in the earlier recordings I've posted, and the singing is beautiful!

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Kirsten
• Flagstad
• Liebestod
• Tristan
• Isolde
• Wagner
• opera

[Zva26]

The only Americans that turned against Flagstad after WWII were those ignorant idiots who knew nothing about music. Kirsten Flagstad never collaborated with the Nazis, and the abuse to which she was subjected in the U.S. is to our eternal shame. Hers was the grandest and most gorgeous Wagnerian voice ever - with Birgit Nilsson right immediately along with her. Nilsson had the more reliable top C's, which Flagstad kind of feared and avoided whenever she could. Still a voice without peer.

[Bligh1780]

Beauty beyond belief. Heaven might exist in this little corner of YouTube.

[childofdogon]

same tendencies as Nazi germany. Please do not compare. Nazi Germany gassed in the camps several prominent German Jewish opera singers including  contralto Ottilie Metzgar who was a Wagnerian Diva in germany

[tedly10027]

@Zva26 what you say is indeed a great point. the IRONY is that America at that same time ALSO practically prevented its OWN great contralto Marian Anderson, for being black , to thrive, often shut out of the opera houses and only returned to the USA long after she was celebrated in europe and her voice was past its prime..basically - practicing the SAME tendencies that the Nazis showed.

[cernuous]

@Bligh1780 , What an exquisitely crafted comment.

[MrCrs713]

Oh, so beautiful. What a magnificent 'Liebestod'. Truly THE BEST of all time.

[lowenklee]

I don't listen to this piece often, maybe every few months. It's simply too much, and I find myself emotionally overwhelmed. What an unbelievable voice, truly remarkable.

[edro3638]

Thank you God!

[VivaRenata]

Flagstad fundamentalist. No comparison exists.

[richard63545]

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 grandmother or great grandmother based on nothing but lies. That being said there certainly was alot of shame to go around in Europe as well.

[VivaRenata]

@Zva26 " To our eternal shame". You are absolutely right and just wanted to say that there are a number of scholars in Musicology - Music History who are writing about this at the present moment. A voice without peer - the voice of the century (Århundradets Stemme) - the Norwegians call her, who appreciated her too little, and too late.

[VivaRenata]

Den enda, den eneste, die Einzige, l'unica ,the only one. That's all that can be said.