Very late Flagstad displays her contralto register down to Gb3 (1959)

Excerpts of Norwegian folk from one of her final recording sessions.
Still present was her huge marble middle voice and quite a reasonable top G and G-sharp towards the end.
These excerpts were taken from the album "Kirsten Flagstad: Alto Collection" which you can listen to in full here: • Kirsten Flagstad: Alto... . Special thanks to the uploader for giving me permission to post these.
Photo courtesy of the Kirsten Flagstad Museum.

[@dramaticsoprano5168]

I wanted to share this to showcase some of her perhaps 'underrated' low notes that she didn't get much chance to show in soprano repertoire. A3s - 0:13, 1:07, 1:11 G3 - 2:17 Gb3 - 2:56 Plenty more in the album linked in the description too...

[@jmiller05]

Flagstad always had a very good low voice, it sounded natural down there.

[@cmarley4259]

Sublime as always in her 64th year!

[@ER1CwC]

She’s still in great condition here. Amazing. If my memory is correct, Culshaw tried to get her to work on the Brahms Alto Rhapsody too. I can’t recall why that didn’t happen. Maybe she became too ill. Interestingly though, she still sounds like a soprano to me here. That’s a little different than Ponselle, who could sometimes sound like a mezzo. Different schooling perhaps.

[@dramaticsoprano5168]

I agree she sounds like a soprano, but probably about as low and heavy as a soprano could get before becoming borderline mezzo. The size of the voice in the C5-E5 range is scarily huge for a high voice. When I first heard the recording I thought the big note in the opening line was a high note but it was only an E! As for the comparison with Ponselle, I think it is definitely approach more than anything. Flagstad tended to sing light on the bottom whereas Ponselle tended to darken and emphasize the tone with a lower larynx position (perhaps a little excessively low in her later years). I think at the core Flagstad was actually a lower voice than Ponselle based on head voice, though both undoubtedly sopranos, unlike Varnay who could have been convincing as a mezzo in her late years.

[@ER1CwC]

@@dramaticsoprano5168 Hear hear! I think it’s also the difference between an Italian and German approach. Not necessarily in terms of production (although I agree with your analysis), but in terms of style.

[@draganvidic2039]

@@dramaticsoprano5168 Ponselle used a correctly produced chestvoice

[@dramaticsoprano5168]

@@draganvidic2039 Certainly, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t lower her larynx. I meant within reason mostly. Excessive lowering would be like Anna Netrebko or early Callas trying to sing dramatic roles.

[@ER1CwC]

​@@dramaticsoprano5168 I think Callas's issue was not that she tried to manufacture a big chest voice, but rather that she didn't manage to coordinate the primo passaggio as smoothly as she ideally would have. So that part of the voice never resonated as well as the rest of the voice; one can hear it if one listens carefully to some of her recits in even Norma. In more dramatic rep, her solution was to drag the chest up, and sometimes the voice would just give out, even in some parts of the early Gioconda recording. I think that's also partly what caused the wobble. I'm pretty sure there is some tongue swallowing in Netrebko's case. Her instinct to have some sort of chest voice effect is correct, but she goes about it the wrong way.

[@user-gw5nn2mm8k]

Astrid Varnay had the most strong low register as contralto sound.

[@dramaticsoprano5168]

Yes, agreed. I assume you are a Varnay fan so I have a question for you... I am working on a vocal range video for her and currently have Gb3 (from Salome) up to C6 (many examples). I'm sure there's more; are you aware of any high D-flats she took? Maybe in Trovatore or Macbeth? Is there anything lower than Gb3? Maybe in Die Frau?

[@user-gw5nn2mm8k]

May be her low notes when she sang Clitemnestra.@@dramaticsoprano5168

[@judygarland7186]

can you send some GREAT varnay b5s and c6s? @@dramaticsoprano5168

[@judygarland7186]

I think I had heard that she sang an eb3 somewhere but not sure@@dramaticsoprano5168

[@KajiVocals]

@@dramaticsoprano5168Die Frau does have a written Eb for a mezzo.

[@dottot937]

Wow

[@anonymous-cq7wj]

Completely silly/random question: are you a dramatic soprano yourself, or just a fan of dramatic sopranos?

[@dramaticsoprano5168]

Just a fan. I'm a contralto myself.

[@artisticskatingpassion7425]

I learned music theory, piano and later singing in France in the 70s/80s/90s (I didn't have a career I changed direction), never any teacher or choir director or other musician that I knew speaks of notes G3, A thing and B thing, but high Sol, low Fa, or simple Do (the Do has the key of the piano), I have sometimes heard Sol 2 octaves lower or 3 octaves higher (for the piano), so either the way of naming the notes has changed since then or outside of France the notes are not named the same way, which means that I am completely lost with these G things.. . for me it’s completely abstract.

[@dramaticsoprano5168]

It looks like you were taught only the solfège method. In English, "Do" is movable, it's not always the same note, and the others are relative to it. In the key of C major, the note"C" would be the equivalent note. In the Latin languages, "Do" is equivalent to "C". So in essence: Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti = C D E F G A B. The numbers simply tell you which octave you are in. G3 = Low G = Low So (for treble voice). I think solfège has its place because it helps people visualise the intervals directly. The disadvantage is that it is sort of unambiguous. In English, Do-Re-Mi can be used for any scale, so all “Do” tells you is that we’re talking about the lowest note in our scale. Choosing a letter to identify the notes takes away the ambiguity. You don't have a "Do" key on the piano, but you have a C, and it will always be the same regardless of key. My explanation probably wasn't great so I would advise just searching up on the topic, it is very simple so it won't take you long to learn at all.