What nationality was the opera singer Kirsten Flagstad?
Kirsten Flagstad Kirsten Flagstad Kirsten Malfrid Flagstad (12 July 1895 – 7 December 1962) was a Norwegian opera singer and a highly regarded Wagnerian soprano. She ranks among the greatest singers of the 20th century, and many opera critics called hers "the voice of the century." Desmond Shawe-Taylor wrote of her in the "New Grove Dictionary of Opera": "No one within living memory surpassed her in sheer beauty and consistency of line and tone." Flagstad was born in Hamar, Norway, in her grandparents' home. Though she never actually lived in Hamar, she always considered it her home town. She was raised in
Kirsten Flagstad found her true voice. Ellen Gulbranson, a Swedish soprano at Bayreuth, persuaded Winifred Wagner to audition Flagstad for the Bayreuth Festival. Flagstad sang minor roles in 1933, but at the next season in 1934, she sang the roles of Sieglinde in "Die Walküre" and Gutrune in "Götterdämmerung" at the Festival, opposite Frida Leider as Brünnhilde. Flagstad was first noticed by Otto Hermann Kahn, then Chairman of the board of the Metropolitan Opera, on a trip to Scandinavia in 1929, and Met management made overtures soon after. Their letters were never answered, however. At the time, Flagstad had just met her