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[Met Performance] CID:155780



Tristan und Isolde
Metropolitan Opera House, Mon, January 22, 1951









Review 1:

Virgil Thomson in the Herald Tribune

Flagstad and Reiner

 

Standing applause and lengthy cheers (nineteen curtain calls) were the reward of Kirsten Flagstad on Monday night after the first act of Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde” at the Metropolitan Opera House. Absent from that stage for ten years, she has returned with her unique vocal powers intact and her dramatic projection more imperious, or so it would seem, than ever. In a house that has long given the Wagner operas better, on the whole, than anything else, Miss Flagstad still set the place afire. Vocally vast and impeccable, and dramatically as convincing as this statuesque work allows, she held the attention, absorbed and drew the gratitude of even so seasoned an anti-Wagnerian as this reporter. She also, and quite literally, held the center of the stage throughout the first act by working in a circle not much larger than twelve feet across, right in the middle down front.

This maneuver kept Blanche Thebom, her Brangäne, constantly upstage and off- side. As a result, though she sang richly, she could not match for volume the sounds that Miss Flagstad projected from downstage center. In the second act, however, she got that spot herself for a short moment and rang out handsomely. Ramon Vinay, as Tristan, came nearer being a match for the soprano. His last act, where he has the stage for a long time, I did not hear. None of the other singers was notable for excellence. Dezso Ernster, indeed, who sang King Marke, was quite poor, sounding hollow and hoarse and far from even being approximate as to pitch for a good part of his long discourse in Act II.

Besides Miss Flagstad the other star of the evening was Fritz Reiner. Transparency in the sound, fluidity and firmness in the beat, meaning and incandescence in the whole made the work what it really is, a long symphonic poem with vocal accompaniment. Mr. Reiner was respectful of that accompaniment, gave it acoustical elbow room. But his orchestra, where all the real characterization and the continuity takes place in this piece, was the source of musical line and substance. But for the delights of the Flagstad voice, which are huge, the musical pleasure of the evening was for this listener in an instrumental reading by Fritz Reiner that was no less impeccable than Flagstad’s vocal one and far more intricate musically. That, after all, is the nature of the composition.

Review 2:

Arthur Bronson in Variety

 

Flagstad Wows Met Opera With an Unprecedented Homecoming in “Tristan”

Return of Kirsten Flagstad to the Met Opera, N. Y., Monday night in “Tristan und Isolde,” after a 10-year absence, was expected to be a dramatic event, but the reception accorded the Norwegian diva exceeded all expectations. An overflow audience packed the house, with standees at the 300 limit. Unusual for the Met was fact that practically the full audience was in its seats at 8 p. m. curtain time, and that hardly anyone left before the opera closed at midnight.

But most definitive was the audience reception when curtains opened and Flagstad was revealed sitting to the left. Although orchestra was playing, a wave of applause swept the house, with shouts and exclamations, so that conductor Fritz Reiner had to stop, breaking the opera’s mood and dramatic entity completely, and start over again some minutes later. When roar of applause subsided, one woman from the balcony shouted “Welcome back.” At end of the first act there was a greater ovation to the soprano, with the audience generally rising and “bravos” punctuating the applause. The unprecedented number of 19 curtain calls came at the opera’s close, despite the late hour and long opus.

Met execs called this the foremost dramatic event in the opera house, or in any such auditorium, for many years. They also expressed the thought that the welcome given Flagstad “laid for all time” the old ghost of a collaborationist cloud.

Diva had been in her native Norway with her Quisling husband during the recent war, and has been bothered since by charges of Nazi ties. But there was no disturbance Monday night, inside or out. There were no pickets. Met management, however, had taken precautions against such a possibility, with extra police outside as well as in, who stayed for the full four hours. Lights above the packed standees also were kept on during the long orchestral prelude before the curtain parted, just in case.

Cosmopolite audience included show biz as well as society, with unusual representation of legiters, such as Katherine Cornell, Judith Anderson, Tallulah Bankhead, etc. Flagstad, a fine actress as well as singer, put on quite a show for them.

Showing little signs of the emotional effect of the welcoming, diva put on an amazing exhibition. The 55-year-old singer is portlier than when last here. But the astonishing vocal brilliance, the power of her high notes, the rich musical color of her voice, are still all there. Voice still has an astonishingly youthful vigor and resonance, putting all other singers on the stage in the shade. Because of Flagstad’s presence, an otherwise routine presentation of “Tristan” was a distinguished, thrilling event, musically as well as dramatically.

Review 3:

Olin Downes in The New York Times

 

Flagstad Returns to Metropolitan Singing Familiar Role of Isolde

 

A fourth performance, non-subscription, of Wagner's "Tristan and Isolde," last night in the Metropolitan Opera House, was momentous and exciting for one single reason. This was the first appearance at the Metropolitan in ten years of Kirsten Flagstad, who had last appeared at the Metropolitan in the same theatre, in the same role, on April 12, 1941.

The house was sold out to the last inch. The eagerness and enthusiasm of a considerable section of the fresh audience to hear again a greatly admired singer and one of the greatest voices that the Metropolitan had made known to the public in the course of the last several decades found expression, rather ill-judged, in the burst of long sustained applause which ensued immediately upon the rising of the curtain, and interrupted unfortunately the artistic effect of the music drama at this point.

As every person acquainted with the score of "Tristan" knows, the overture leads directly into the first act, and on the rising of the curtain, the invisible voice of the sailor at the mast-head utters its eerie call — a moment very important to the whole texture, drama and music, of the open*ing act. Little did these enthusiasts care about Wagner or the effect of the performance, apparently. They prevented the music from being heard at all for a considerable interval. A few hissed at this act of musical sabotage, but the episode passed and the audience sat back, to listen to one of the greatest Wagnerian singers of this epoch.

 

Has a Great Voice        

It may be well to defer too precise an examination of Mme. Flagstad's voice at this time, for she must have been under a special nervous strain due to the particular circumstances of her return to the Metropolitan stage. Hers remains one of the great voices; she remains one of the great mistresses of the tonal art. Last night there was considerable shrillness of her upper tones, some false intonation, a tendency to parlando effects instead of straight singing at the end of certain phrases.

On the credit side, Mme. Flagstad was more careful and distinguished with her diction than ever before. In the middle and lower parts of her voice, particularly, she matched tone to text in a most eloquent manner. She used to be reproached by some of her critics for acting either "coldly" or not acting enough. Last night she acted more than ever before in our memory, and over-acted in places. And ever and anon the tones soared with the old ecstatic flight. It is true that her complete facility and effortless security in execution of the former years appear now to be conditioned. Ten years will pass and no human voice remain immune to their passage. Even so, granted an occasion of less tension, and growing ease upon the stage which she has not ornamented for a decade, and these desiderata will probably be, of small importance by the side of the singer's authority in her art.

Outside of this, the performance was singularly uneventful, and in various respects badly under par. Mr. Bing has done some notable cleaning up of operas which had not apparently been polished for years in the Metropolitan repertory. Naturally, he has not been able to do this in a single season with all the old operas and casts. It is here respectfully suggested that one of the earliest operas for fresh attention should be "Tristan und Isolde," concerning which there should be a refurbishing, not only of the stage, but of the voices, and the dramatic interpretation of individual parts.

There was nothing in the first two acts last night, with exception of Mme. Flagstad, to command the attention. We are told that Ramon Vinay, who also may have been under a special strain, has sung Tristan much better. This may be. He can't have acted it as inadequately as he did last night and know how to do better. For if he did know better, he would have indicated some perception of the dramatic requirements of the Tristan role, of which, at present, he appears to be innocent.

Blanche Thebom was stiff, unexpressive, not actually much more in her part than Mr. Vinay. There is a tenderness, an almost tigerish devotion to Isolde, and a sense conveyed by Brangäne's presence of o'er hanging destiny that was not there. Nor was Miss Thebom alluring vocally. Herbert Janssen cannot sing the part of Kurvenal any longer, and shouldn't be asked to. Dezso Ernster sang boomingly, but not much better than that, as Marke, which is a difficult part and hard to do eloquently enough to remove the part from the gallery of famous operatic bores. Nothing was done in that direction last night. 

Perhaps by the time of another "Tristan" with Mme. Flagstad there will be a lessening of tension and a dramatic recuperation of the cast as a whole – a consummation devoutly to be wished.

Review 4:

Paul Affelder in the Brooklyn Eagle

 

Kirsten Flagstad. Welcomed Back to Met, Sings Well in Otherwise, Boring “Tristan”

 

Kirsten Flagstad returned to the Metropolitan Opera last night after an absence of nearly ten years, and received a royal welcome. Though a special detail of police had been thrown around the opera house there were no pickets to divert the capacity audience which showed by its continuous enthusiasm that it had come for one purpose and one purpose only – Mme. Flagstad.

She appropriately chose for her comeback her most famous role – that of  Isolde in Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde.” The moment the curtain went up at the end of the prelude there was a full minute of applause and cheering, during which one balcony occupant was heard to shout “Welcome Back!” There were similar and longer ovations at the end of the first and second acts, while at the opera’s conclusion there was a demonstration which lasted for more than ten minutes, ending only with the lowering of the asbestos fire curtain.

 

Voice Has Improved

 

We hadn’t heard Mme. Flagstad since her departure from the Met, so last night’s was an interesting and revealing experience. From the visible standpoint, she has aged considerably and has put on some weight. There have been some vocal changes, too. She no longer sings with that pure, cool, calculatingly accurate tone. Her high notes are frequently forced and on the edge of the pitch. But otherwise her voice has, if anything, improved. Her middle and lower registers are still sure and clean, and she has invested them with more tonal warmth and humaneness. These qualities plus a greater awareness of the role’s dramatic implication makes her Isolde possibly less spectacular but far more convincing and moving than in years gone by.

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Met careers

• Fritz Reiner [Conductor]
• Ramon Vinay [Tristan]
• Kirsten Flagstad [Isolde]
• Herbert Janssen [Kurwenal]
• Blanche Thebom [Brangäne]
• Dezsö Ernster [King Marke]
• Hugh Thompson [Melot]
• Thomas Hayward [Sailor's Voice]
• Leslie Chabay [Shepherd]
• Lawrence Davidson [Steersman]