Though Flagstad was not interested in stardom or Hollywood contracts per se, she did make trips to Hollywood during the late 1930s for publicity photo shoots, public appearances, concerts at the Hollywood Bowl, and she filmed a rendition of Brünnhilde's Battle Cry from Die Walküre for the Hollywood variety show anthology The Big Broadcast of 1938, in which she was introduced to American film audiences by Bob Hope.

Flagstad accepted the commission, although Strauss did not live to see the premiere.

Flagstad added " September ", " Beim Schlafengehen ", and " Im Abendrot " to her repertoire, and recordings ( technologically superior to those taken at the premiere ) exist of these performed in concert ; she did not, however, sing " Fruhling " again.

Although he also worked with Wagnerian heldentenor Lauritz Melchior, he would not work with Melchior's frequent partner Kirsten Flagstad after her political sympathies became suspect during World War II ; it was Helen Traubel who sang with Melchior instead of Flagstad at the Toscanini concerts.

In the 1951-52 season, wagnerian soprano Kirsten Flagstad sang Alceste in five performances, including her farewell performance with the company on April 1, 1952.

Since the Met already had two first-class Wagnerian sopranos, Kirsten Flagstad and Marjorie Lawrence, Traubel at first had difficulty finding her niche.

Flagstad left the US in 1941 to visit her homeland of Norway and could not return for political reasons.

Flagstad was born in Hamar in her grandparents ' home.

Flagstad made her debut there singing Agathe in Der Freischütz by Weber.

At the time, Flagstad had just met her soon to be second husband and had even briefly considered giving up opera altogether.

Before the end of the season, Flagstad sang Elsa in Lohengrin, Elisabeth in Tannhäuser, and her first Kundry in Parsifal.

Hollywood also tried to cash in on Flagstad fever, after her sudden popularity in the US in the mid 1930s, with her many appearances on NBC Radio, The Kraft Music Hall with Bing Crosby, and regular appearances on CBS's The Ford Sunday Evening Hour.

Flagstad also feuded with the Met's general manager, Edward Johnson, after conductor Artur Bodanzky's death, when she asked to be conducted for a few performances by her accompanist, Edwin McArthur, rather than by the Met's new conductor Erich Leinsdorf.

Flagstad had wanted this for McArthur, whom she had taken under her wing.

Her relationship with Johnson improved, however ; just before Flagstad left the Met in 1941, on the night of her 100th performance of Tristan, she received 100 roses, courtesy of Melchior and Johnson.

Having received repeated and cryptic cablegrams from her husband, who had returned to Norway a year and a half earlier, Flagstad was forced to consider leaving the United States in 1941.

In the 1950-1951 season, although she was aged well into her 50s, Flagstad showed herself still in remarkable form as Isolde, Brünnhilde and Leonore.

Despite the great fanfare surrounding her return to the Met in early 1951, and her success in resuming her roles there, Flagstad decided that it would be her final year singing Wagner on the stage.

He intended them to be premiered by Flagstad, though not because he had her voice in mind.

Strauss, moreover, had heard praise for Flagstad over the years, but had not heard her sing in person since casting her as the soprano soloist in the 1933 Bayreuth Festival performance of the Beethoven Choral Symphony.

He sent Flagstad a letter, accompanied by a collection of his own works which he desired her to consider adding to her repertoire, and requested that she give the premiere-together with " a first-class conductor and ensemble "-of these four new orchestral lieder, at that point still in the publication process.

Almost to the end of her life, Flagstad continued to sing in fine voice, although she increasingly sang mezzo-soprano material or in a mezzo range: besides the Rheingold Fricka ( a mezzo role ), Decca planned to cast her also as the Walkure Fricka and the Gotterdammerung Waltraute for its complete Ring ( in the event, the roles were sung by others ), and also to record her in Brahms ’ Four Serious Songs and Alto Rhapsody ; that these plans were shelved only by her final illness and death stands as a testament to her superbly consistent vocal abilities, and to the respect and affection in which she was held to the end by record companies and the public.

He reportedly composed them with Kirsten Flagstad in mind, and she gave the first performance, which was recorded.

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 Brunnhilde.

Then, in the summer of 1934, when the Met needed a replacement for Frida Leider, Flagstad agreed to audition for conductor Artur Bodanzky and Met general manager Giulio Gatti-Casazza in St Moritz in August 1934, and she was engaged immediately.

Days later, Flagstad sang Isolde, and later that month, she performed Brünnhilde in Die Walküre and Götterdämmerung for the first time.

In 1936 and 1937, Flagstad performed the roles of Isolde, Brünnhilde, and Senta at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, under Sir Thomas Beecham, Fritz Reiner and Wilhelm Furtwängler, arousing as much enthusiasm there as she had in New York.

In that year she also made her debut at Bayreuth after Flagstad, who had declined the invitation to Bayreuth, recommended that Wieland Wagner engage Varnay.

The jersey, a rare NFL artifact valued at over $ 17, 000, was donated by son Daniel Flagstad in memory of his parents.

After singing operetta and lyric roles such as Marguerite in Faust for over a decade, Flagstad decided to take on heavier operatic roles such as Tosca and Aida.

Ticket sales were down, but on given nights the brilliant Wagner pairing of the Norwegian soprano Kirsten Flagstad with the great heldentenor Lauritz Melchior proved irresistible to audiences even in such troubled times.

She also sang Woglinde and the Waldvogel in Der Ring des Nibelungen, with Kirsten Flagstad and Helen Traubel alternating as Brünnhilde.

Flagstad got involved in a long-running feud with tenor co-star Lauritz Melchior after Melchior took offense to some comments Flagstad made about " stupid publicity photos " during a game of bridge in Flagstad's hotel suite while the two were on tour together in Rochester, NY.

Strauss had written the pieces during his exile in Switzerland following after the war ( like Flagstad, he had been vilified as a collaborator with the Nazis ).

In the event, Flagstad rose to the occasion and included " Fruhling " ( with, however, several downward transpositions ), and the close of " Im Abendrot " was followed by a respectful silence in memory of Strauss.

His short tenure still had a significant impact upon the orchestra and local audiences through performances such as a legendary account of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde with Kirsten Flagstad.

* “ Brunnhilde ’ s Battle Cry ” ( from Richard Wagner ’ s Die Walkure, Act 2 Scene 1 ) performed by Metropolitan Opera soprano Madame Kirsten Flagstad with an orchestra conducted by Wilfrid Pelletier.

A year later, Flagstad arranged for her to start preparing roles with Metropolitan Opera staff conductor and coach Hermann Weigert ( 1890 – 1955 ).

The Maharaja also enabled Richard Strauss's last wish to be fulfilled by sponsoring an evening at the Royal Albert Hall by London's Philharmonia Orchestra with German conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler in the lead and soprano Kirsten Flagstad singing his Four Last Songs in 1950.

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.

In addition to those mentioned above, others were conductors Daniel Barenboim, Leonard Bernstein, Eugen Jochum, Erich Kleiber, Serge Koussevitzky, Pierre Monteux, André Previn and Leopold Stokowski, and soloists Janet Baker, Dennis Brain, Alfred Brendel, Roberto Carnevale, Pablo Casals, Aldo Ciccolini, Clifford Curzon, Victoria de los Ángeles, Jacqueline du Pré, Kirsten Flagstad, Beniamino Gigli, Emil Gilels, Jascha Heifetz, Wilhelm Kempff, Fritz Kreisler, Julian Lloyd Webber, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, David Oistrakh, Luciano Pavarotti, Maurizio Pollini, Leontyne Price, Arthur Rubinstein, Elisabeth Schumann, Rudolf Serkin, Joan Sutherland, Richard Tauber and Eva Turner.

In 1930, a revival of Nielsen's Saul and David featured Flagstad singing the role of Michal.