Collection contains recordings of Kirsten Flagstad and Waldemar Alme in performances and interviews.

Kirsten Flagstad (1895-1962), an operatic soprano, spent the first 18 years of her career in Scandinavia, singing opera, operetta and musical comedy. After performing Isolde in 1932 at the National Theatre, Oslo, she was invited to Bayreuth, where her performances in small Wagnerian roles led to invitations to the Metropolitan Opera in New York, to the San Francisco Opera, and to Covent Garden. She became known for her Wagnerian roles, particularly Sieglinde, Isolde and Brunnhilde. In 1941, Flagstad returned to Norway to join her husband who was later arrested as a Nazi collaborator and died awaiting trial in 1946; she, herself, was acquitted of any wrongdoing. In 1948, Flagstad returned to Covent Garden, performing there, and in other European venues, until 1951. Retiring from the operatic stage in 1953 after a performance of Dido and Aeneas at the Little Mermaid Theatre in London, she continued to give recitals, make recordings, primarily off Wagner and Norwegian composers, and was, for a few years, the director of the Norwegian State Opera.

86 sound tape reels

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