Flagstad Kirsten Malfrid, *12 July 1895 Hamar, †7 December 1962 Oslo, Norwegian soprano. The daughter of a conductor and a pianist, she studied under her mother and later under E. Schytte-Jacobsen in Oslo. On 12 December 1913 she made her operatic debut with the small role of Nuri in Tiefland by E. d’Albert. After further education under A. Westwang in Oslo and G. Bratt in Stockholm, she began working in 1917 at the Mayol Theatre in Oslo, performing mainly in operetta repertoire, and then at the National Theatre in Oslo, where she sang, among others, in Rodelinda by G. F. Handel, Der Freischütz and Euryanthe by C. M. Weber, Un ballo in maschera by G. Verdi, Carmen (Micaëla) by G. Bizet, and Pagliacci by R. Leoncavallo (lyric roles later almost completely disappeared from her repertoire). From 1928 to 1930 she was a soloist at the theatre in Gothenburg and after returning to Oslo, in 1932 she performed her first Wagnerian role as Isolde (Tristan und Isolde). In 1933 she was engaged at Bayreuth, where she initially sang minor roles in Wagner’s dramas (Ortlinde and the Third Norn in Götterdämmerung). By 1934 she was already performing the roles of Sieglinde (Die Walküre) and Gutrune (Götterdämmerung). These performances, especially her portrayal of Sieglinde (1935) at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, opened the way to a great career and established her as the foremost interpreter of soprano roles in Wagner’s dramas at that time (she also sang in Siegfried, Götterdämmerung and the role of Brünnhilde in Die Walküre). She remained a soloist at the Metropolitan Opera until 1941. She also appeared on other major opera stages – in 1936 and 1937 at London’s Covent Garden, where she and L. Melchior were regarded as the greatest Tristan and Isolde pair, and in 1936 at the Viennese Staatsoper (Der Ring des Nibelungen, Der fliegende Holländer). Between 1935 and 1938 she performed at the San Francisco Opera, where alongside Wagnerian roles she also sang Leonore in Beethoven’s Fidelio. She spent the years 1941–1945 in her native Norway. In 1947–1948 she undertook a triumphant tour of South America, and from 1948 to 1951 she sang again at Covent Garden, also appearing at festivals in Salzburg (including Fidelio in 1950 under the direction of W. Furtwängler). In 1951 she created the role of Dido in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at the Mermaid Theatre in London, and in 1952 the title role in Gluck’s Alceste at the Metropolitan Opera House. She also performed in oratorio and song repertoire (Grieg, Brahms, Wolf, Strauss). She retired from the stage in 1955 and served as director of the Den Norske Opera in Oslo from 1958 to 1960.
Literature: The Kirsten Flagstad. Manuscript, ed. L. Biancolli, New York 1952 (autobiography); A. Rein Kirsten Flagstad, Oslo 1967 (includes a discography).
