Kirsten Flagstad (1895 – 1962) was a Norwegian opera singer, especially revered for her Wagner roles and considered one of the best opera singers ever. Her international career started at the Met in New York in 1934, from there she went around the world with stops in San Francisco, the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, but returned to Norway in 1941. Her post-war career brought her back to the Met and included the world premiere performance of Richard Strauss’ ‘Four Last Songs’ in London in 1950. Because of deteriorating health, she stopped performing and only recorded a few more albums and mentored young singers before her passing in 1962. Her performances over the years in Wagner’s ‘Tristan And Isolde’ are still considered exemplary.
Flagstad – The Opera has music composed by Ketil Bjørnstad and a libretto by Einar Björge and only three performers: Brigitte Christensen as Flagstad, Eldrid Gorset as the Nurse and Bernt Ola Volungholen as Henry Johansen / Bernard Miles. In the story, a very ill Flagstad is confronting crucial moments in her life – private and professional. Via conversations with her nurse, dreams and a visit of her manager she tells us her story. The small ensemble of 5 musicians, including on piano the arranger of Ketil’s original score Stefan Ibsen Zlatanos and featuring Hans-Kristian Kjos Sørensen on percussion, Hanne Rekdal on flute and bassoon, Elisabeth Lund Tomter on viola and Jon Åsnes on bass, often sounds fuller and bigger and throughout performs to perfection. Bjørnstad’s music is touching, melodic and, even so classical in arrangement, typical for him. For me, who knows a bit of his music, these compositions flow within his usual writing in many ways, even so the way the melody lines for the voices are written is more classical and therefore slightly different, I could sometimes hear as well another way of singing these parts in my head. But the sheer beauty and impressive control that Brigitte Christensen displays makes sense over the music Ketil had composed and Zlatanos had arranged. Björge’s libretto is clear and follows the story of Flagstad’s last hours with precision and Gorset’s nurse shows the nice and warm character plus her naivety extremely good, while Volungholen is as believable in his roles as the two female singers are. The Opera is truly one piece, not a collection of songs or arias, but a coherent story told in an operatic way and therefore should be listened as a whole. Ketil as well included in his music some fragments from other composers, like Strauss and Wagner, as these had an importance in Flagstad’s life. At one point in the Opera he and Björge let Christensen sing “You know, music is a language ..” I couldn’t agree more and this one clearly speaks to me! An opera for fans of the genre and for those who don’t know much about it, but would like to start somewhere.
The audio recording and the filmed performance on the DVD in the same package are both from the dress rehearsal of the opera from November 5th, 2020. The world premiere, set for the following day, had to be cancelled due to Covid-19. In the end the premiere was held in June 2021 in Hamar, Flagstad’s place of birth.
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