KIRSTEN FLAGSTAD - ALCESTE

Alceste by Christoph Willibald Gluck
Aria: Ombre, larve, compagne di morte
Kirsten Flagstad, Wagnerian dramatic soprano
Divinites du Styx! ministres de la mort!
sung in Italian with the most powerfull voice ever

[@SleepingTurtle1]

I always find there something thrilling about the big voices singing this earlier stuff, rather like Vickers doing Samson. It´s not very period, but it´s wonderful.

[@FelipeViannaNutriUFRJ]

But this is the voice to sing any repertoire. This idea that to sing older operatic repertoire (baroque/classicism), the singer must have a smaller, whiter voice, without vibrato, is a fallacy that the great singing masters of the time were against. Look at the writings of Porpora, Caccini, great castrati who dedicated themselves to teaching singing too, none of them will support this. Opera is about tradition. This is what belcanto is: a strong voice, HUGE, with squillo, chiaroscuro, girare, a very well developed chest voice... What we call Wagnerian singers of the golden age (Flagstadt, Vickers, Nilsson etc), were the great singers of Handel, Vivaldi, Gluck, Mozart and so on, IN THEIR TIMES! Sadly, the beautiful singing tradition is dying. Nowadays it is difficult to hear a properly developed voice. Rarest thing! Sad... Remember what THE GREAT Callas said: "There is only one way to sing, the right way!" Opera is about tradition, declamation. It would be unfeasible for a singer in the golden age of classical music not to have a huge voice. People had no education in baroque theaters! Hahahahaha' People went to the opera to gossip, mind other people's business, show off, it was an EVENT! Imagine not having a huge voice with so many people talking, playing chess, a few others booing (the audience always had a totally dissatisfied "a LaScala"), and so on... Small voices weren't useful, not even for the chorus. Hahahahahahaha'

[@foley325405]

Probably c. 1952, unbelievably the year of her retirement. She learned the role for her 4 farewell performances at the Met and never sang it before or after.

[@randysills4418]

Robert Joseph Foley No, it was 1956.

[@randysills4418]

She recorded it for Decca in Italian in late April and early May of 1956 here. In 1952 she sang it at the Metropolitan Opera in English as her farewell...

[@MrSkylark1]

MAGNIFICENT - THERE ARE NO SOPRANOS ON THE OPERATIC STAGE NOW OR INDEED SINCE SHE SANG THAT COULD COME UP TO THIS LEVEL OF SINGING.

[@Zva26]

This is the Italian version of the Gluck opera Alceste, which is a different version from that in which she sang at the Met in 1952. This recording comes from the complete Decca recording of April, 1956, just three months before Flagstad's 61st birthday.

[@Zva26]

The early 1942 performances were never recorded or broadcast. She traveled to Sweden primarily to communicate with her friends and her daughter in America, and the Alceste performances she was offered in Sweden provided her with that opportunity. She was asked to singing it in Norway. but refused to sing for the Nazis, who were occupying Norway at the time. After the war, she was supposed to do it in London, but it never materialized. But the Met got it in 1952 and she recorded it in 1956.

[@Zva26]

Flagstad sang Alceste in Sweden during World War II (she never sang in any Nazi occupied country). She then sang the French version in an English translation at the Met for 5 performances in March of 1952. The aria heard here is from the complete Decca recording of the Italian version made in April, 1956. She sang it a year later for Danish Radio in March, 1957.

[@achantus1]

Do you know what year this is? The voice of the century!

[@randysills4418]

Late April of 1956...and unfortunately she had a cold... She was almost 61...

[@foley325405]

Thanks for the correction. I guess I should have said 'learned it in English" . Do you know if there is any recorded history of the earlier performances

[@kathleensmith8554]

I am an offspring of Kirsten Flagstad, she was related to my mom on the Tangen side of my family

[@randysills4418]

Kathleen Smith Can you sing? She was the greatest of the dramatic sopranos!

[@captainamerica-qw1gl]

She sang Alcestis in Zurich, not Sweden, during the war.

[@gomongio]

The recording, what year?

[@eduardobraivein8496]

As much as I love Flagstad, I prefer Traubel's version.

[@achantus1]

Do you know what year this is?

[@randysills4418]

Roy Andersen This was recorded the end of April of 1956 and she had a bad cold according to John Culshaw, the director of the sessions for Decca. I can hear that she did, especially since I have listened to her voice for fifty years. It still is incredible!

[@thomasdahlen2158]

Traubel was a soprano.Flagstad was a mezzo.Flagstad had severe problems with both Isolde and Brunhilde in Siegfried and Götterdämmerung.Traubel,Nilsson,Varnay and Mödl were the best

[@ransomcoates546]

What utter nonsense! Traubel had the shortest top of any soprano of her reputation. She recorded the high C exactly once (not pleasant) in the ‘Gött.’ duet with Melchior, Toscanini conducting. Her reliable sound ended at A. Flagstad sang many C’s with ease, until the point when any soprano with a voice as huge as hers is expected to encounter difficulties, i.e. in her early 50’s. People forget that her international career as a Wagnerian did not begin until she was almost 40. For the previous 20 years she had sung all manner of repertoire - including Mimi- with a high tessitura.

[@randysills4418]

Traubel had a lot of trouble with her top notes early on! Flagstad could sing wonderful high Bs until she was 57 or 58...