Metropolitan Opera Archives

Presentation
George A. Sloan, chairman of the board
This was Flagstad's final performance with the Metropolitan Opera. During the onstage ceremony following the opera, she was given a silver cup inscribed with the names of the heroines she had sung with the company. She did not speak.

Review 1:

Review and account in the Herald Tribune

Flagstad Sings Farewell at Met A Second Time

Appears in 'Alcestis,' Her 1st Role in English There; Applauded 22 Minutes

Kirsten Flagstad sang her second "farewell" operatic performance in two years last night when she appeared at the Metropolitan Opera in the title role of Gluck's "Alcestis." It was her 193rd performance there.

Her audience bade farewell with a twenty-two minute demonstration that drew her before the footlights for thirteen curtain calls. Programs were town into confetti in the upper tiers and scattered onto the heads of people on the orchestra floor - all of whom stood to applaud Miss Flagstad.

Even rose petals were thrown down onto the stage near her feet. Even after the asbestos curtain was lowered - the usual final signal of dismissal - the applause persisted and she took two more curtain calls.

Following four more recital appearances - at Manhattan, Kansas, Houston, Texas, Springfield, Massachusetts, and Chicago - she will leave April 15 by plane for London to begin a European tour that will include recitals at Paris and probably appearances at some of the major summer festivals. The European tour is expected to continue into early fall, after which time she has told her close friends she will retire to her villa above Kristiansand, Norway.

Mme. Flagstad sang what she said was her farewell operatic role a year ago as Isolde in Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde." At that time she insisted she would not reappear at the Metropolitan, but Rudolf Bing, general manager of the Met, persuaded her to return to sing her first Metropolitan role in English, the Alcestis in which she appeared last night. She gave five performances in this opera.

Farewell Recitals

On February 1 this year she gave a recital at Carnegie Hall and announced at its conclusion that was her last New York appearance on the recital stage. Then on March 23 she sang another "farewell" recital, a Wagner program accompanied by Bruno Walter.

The Metropolitan was sold out last night for Mme. Flagstad's appearance. Standees appeared at 8:30 a. m. at the Broadway entrance to wait until 7:30 p. m. to buy tickets that enabled them to stand through the three-hour performance.

In Mr. Bing's box were Governor Thomas E. Dewey and Mrs. Dewey; Lowell Wadmond, president of the Metropolitan; Trygve Lie, Secretary General of the United Nations; and Mrs. Lie.

At the conclusion of the opera, George A. Sloan, chairman of the Metropolitan's board of directors, stepped onto the stage and presented to Mme. Flagstad a silver cup and tray, gifts of her friends at the Metropolitan and the Metropolitan Opera Guild.

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