Word: flagstads
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...perfection of modern studio recording is one thing. The excitement of live performance is another. Who, for example, would not want to hear two of the century's greatest Wagnerians, Soprano Kirsten Flagstad and Tenor Lauritz Melchior, sing Tristan und Isolde together as they did at the Metropolitan Opera before World War II? Trouble is, Flagstad and Melchior never commercially recorded a complete opera together. For that matter, Melchior never recorded any complete opera...
...singing of Flagstad and Melchior should earn the album an honored place in any record collection. Sheer voice was their badge; yet what made them extraordinary was the uncanny way they could suggest a passion that was at once human and mythical. In particular, Flagstad's ability to float her tenderer notes was almost supernatural-and hard to forget...
Ideally, Hillis would like a chorus of Kirsten Flagstads. Says she: "I still have the sound of Flagstad in my ear. Her pianissimo was right out of the rafters. When she opened up, she never sounded loud, but she created somehow a tower of sound." Actually, about 100 members of her chorus have voices of professional solo caliber. But even they earn only about $2,000 per year-the rest get nothing-and most of the singers have full-time jobs elsewhere, so it is up to Hillis to keep drilling them. She is just as demanding as Reiner...
...decades; in Yorktown Heights, N.Y. Blonde, blue-eyed and almost fearsomely robust, German-born Rethberg tried out at the Met in 1922 and stayed for 20 years, drawing raves with a clear, effortlessly powerful voice that made her a standout in an era of great Met sopranos, including Kirsten Flagstad and Lotte Lehmann. She also brought a lively offstage presence to U.S. opera-once, during a tour with Met Basso Ezio Pinza, she collected not only bouquets but also a $250,000 suit from Pinza's wife charging alienation of affections. "It's too full, my life," Rethberg...
...moved from Munich to become general music director of the Frankfurt Opera. He had nine good years there (44 new productions), but in terms of his international career, it was records that brought him prominence. His 1957 recording of Wagner's Die Walküre with Kirsten Flagstad, Set Svanholm and the Vienna Philharmonic, was so successful that it prompted English Decca (London Records in the U.S.) to engage him to embark upon the complete Ring cycle, a prodigious undertaking that was not completed until...