Kirsten Flagstad

A dear friend recommended documentary on youtube and it turned out to be really interesting.
It was about Norwegian soprano Kirsten Flagstad who was one of the biggest operatic stars of pre-WW2 generation and in her time definitely superstar of international proportions but is slightly forgotten today and remembered (if at all) for her helmeted, Wagnerian roles. The lady was (to put it bluntly) plump and hefty country girl with potato face and very far from our ideal of warrior maidens, to me she looks like a perfectly harmless housewife but when she opened her mouth the voice that came out was unbelievably strong, powerful and startling in its melancholy beauty. I can't even imagine what kind of person she might have been after spending the lifetime of singing this mournful type of music but home movies show her as smiling as cheerful so perhaps it wasn't all doom and gloom.

Because Wagner still frightens me I kind of had just vague ideas about Flagstad and how important she once was, but this documentary cleared up little bit the picture and my impression - yes, she was so famous that destiny eventually took her out of Sweden and Norway to Bayreuth Festival and even The Metropolitan Opera where  they bowed to her like she really was Brünnhilde reincarnated. Than WW2 came along and this is where story gets really ugly - or interesting - depends on point of view. Flagstad was in New York when her husband insisted she should come back to be at his side - obviously neither of them understood what does it mean and how will the rest of the world explain her return to Nazi-occupied Norway. From simply private, personal point of view here was a woman who wanted to be with her husband, to the others this most famous Norwegian showed sympathy and support to Nazi regime. Completely opposite to Marlene Dietrich (and countless other artists) who didn't want to have anything with Germans, Flagstad actually flew to Norway via Berlin and even though she never performed for them (which was actually brave act as refusal could lead to her imprisonment) the media in both USA and at home was quick to condemn her and crucify her for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. As documentary clearly points, there was absolutely nothing wrong with Flagstad doings but there was a huge witch hunt around her and it took years before she was finally allowed to sing in USA (even than, under attack of protests and stink bombs) again. Interestingly enough, her last role was the one that I have (Purcell’s "Dido and Aeneas") and later she continued working as manager of the Norwegian National Opera but I doubt her name was ever properly cleaned. It is very significant that at her death Flagstad expressed wish to be buried in anonymous, unmarked grave and to be left alone finally once for all. No more protests and stink bombs, all that's left are recordings and music she left behind is seriously touching.