Glebe Collegiate Institute - Lux Glebana Yearbook (Ottawa, Ontario Canada)

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pianist and Norway's finest opera coach. That she was destined for a musical career was evident from the fact that at the age of ten, merely cut of interest, she learned the role of Elsa in Lohengrin. When she was seventeen, at a time when Tiefland, an opera by d'Albert, was being produced in Oslo, some difficulty was ex- perienced in filling the part of Nuri, a little girl. Kirsten was handed the score and told that she would be given an audition if she could have the part ready in two days. This she did, and two months later made her debut at the Oslo Opera. Afterwards she sang some twenty different operatic roles in Oslo. Later a theatre for the production of operetta was built in Oslo. Flagstad was asked to sing leading roles, but declined- she had been a grand opera artist and had no desire to descend to opere-tta. These productions, however, met with eminent success, and finally, unable to resist the financial inducement offered, she accepted. Later she regarded this work in operetta as having afforded her an opportunity for excellent training for more serious and ex- acting roles. In 1933, for the first time in a country other than her own, she was invited to sing at the great Wagnerian theatre at Bayreuth in Bavaria. There she was assigned to minor roles. Artur Bodanzky, conductor of the Metropolitan Opera Association, heard her, and arranged for her to appear as understudy to another soprano during the season 1934-35 in New York. The other soprano has since faded out of the picture. A debut at the Metropolitan is always an exciting event. Generally it is preceded by much publicity and advertising. Signor Gatti-Casazza, general manager of the Met- ropolitan at the time, fully aware of her artistry, saw to it that there was little or no advertising, he preferred to introduce the element of surprise. On February 3, 1935, a Saturday afternoon, Madame Flag- stad appeared for the first time on this side of the ocean in the role of Sieglinde in Die Walkiire. After the first act the audience went wild with enthusiasm-I know because I was listening to the radio at the time. The music columns of the morning papers the next day were full of praise of the new soprano. The following Wednesday the new Sieg- linde was to sing Isolde in the greatest of all music dramas, Tristan und Isolde, by Richard Wagner. Since pre-war days there Page 56 had not been even an adequate Isolde at the Metropolitan 5 would Flagstad do as well in this role as she had in Die Walkiire? Opera lovers, hoping to hear a real Isolde, packed the theatre for the first time in many years. She sang the part gloriously, as it had not been sung here in many years, and almost immediately she captivated her audience by a beautiful stage presence, by youth, sincerity, and dramatic feeling con- veyed equally by acting and by song, wrote Olin Downes in the New York Times. Referring to the sweeping climax of the first act, he went on: Heaven be praised, the soprano had the voice to achieve the musical apotheosis of the situation. That voice soared 3 the sustained A carried the thrill that only the human voice, of all instruments, communicates. More triumphs in Wagnerian roles fol- lowed in rapid succession: Elsa in Lohengrin, Briinnhilde in Die Walkiire and Gotter- dammerung, Elisabeth in Tannhauser. The following year she sang Brtinnhilde in Siegfried and Kundry in Parsifal. Her first and only non-Wagnerian role at the Metropolitan was Leonora in Beethoven's Fidelio. She was to sing the title role in an Italian opera, Norma, by Bellini, but her time was so fully occupied that she was unable to become sufficiently familiar with the language in which the opera was written, and she insists upon knowing the inner meaning of every word she sings. Two years ago Wagner's early opera, The Flying Dutchman, was revived with Flagstad sing- ing Senta. I have been fortunate enough to hear Kirsten Flagstad in person eleven times, three times in concert and eight times at the Metropolitan, to say nothing of innum- erable broadcasts and many phonograph recordings. I heard her first concert of the season on Monday, October 5, 1936, in the Imperial Theatre in Montreal. We drove from Ottawa that afternoon, heard a mem- orable concert, and arrived home about four o'clock in the morning. Consequently I slept in and in the afternoon found out in no uncertain manner that my absence had resulted in the spoiling of two perfect reports for 4E, Mr. Bullock's class. But music hath charms. . . The first opera I heard with Madame Flagstad in the cast was Die Walkiire. She sang Briinnhilde, not Sieglinde as in her debut. Die Walkiire, it may be noted, is the second of a series of four music dramas entitle-d The Ring of the Nibelungs, the others, in the order named, being Das Rheingold, Siegfried, and Gotterdammerung LUX GLEBANA

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MUSIC:.- -- .... ..--- Edited by N. MacDONALD HIS has been a memorable year in music for the Glebe Collegiate. Our orchestra under the baton of our new conductor, Mr. R. N. McGregor, B.A., has improved greatly both in number and in calibre. Out of twenty-two of the num- bers at the concert, fifteen included music to at least some degree. This is surely in- dicative of the part music has come to play in our school entertainment. Too, Glebe has a band of which she is justly proud. Spectators at the rugby games will certainly have appreciated the fine service it rendered and the glory it added to Glebe's name. The Glee Club surpassed itself this year at the concert. It was easily the finest and most polished performance it has yet pre- sented. Mr. D. M. Westington, B. A., and his singers deserve high praise for the high standard they have set for themselves. Any article on music in our school would surely be incomplete without at least some mention of the Music Appreciation Club, started by the initiative of one of our Upper School students, Blyth Young. With access to a large library of the world's finest re- corded music, for several years he has de- sired to share his pleasure with others who appreciate good music. This year his hopes bore fruit. The Music Appreciation Club has a regular attendance of forty to fifty members which has risen on several occas- ions to seventy. It meets on alternate Tuesdays, when a recorded programme of about one hour is presented, along with explanations and summaries of the pieces to be heard. The plan has proved very suc- cessful and it is to be hoped that the club will continue to function even after its in- itiator has left Glebe. Music is enjoying one of its greatest years since the founding of the school. We who are leaving the school at the end of this year will have, to our sorrow, but little connection with its future. Nevertheless, with this year as a foundation, we cannot but hope for even greater things in music at the Glebe Collegiate. Slffkvk William Reynolds: I like workg it fascin- ates me. I can sit and look at it for hours. LUX GLEBANA DIRECTOR OF MUSIC Mr. R. N. MCGREGOR ORCHESTRA Honorary PT9S1id67Ni-IVIR. H. L. SMITH P-resident-R. SHUTTLEWORTH Vice-President-L. OGILVIE Libro-rians-P. SERSON I. MACDONALD JUNIOR ORCHESTRA Honorary President-MR. J. MACNEIL Presidevz-t-R. GLASS Vice-President-M. HRYHORCHUK Librarians-T. BURKHOLDER M. JOHNSTON BAND H on. Presideiz-t--lVIR. T. K. WADDELL President-D. IVIACDONALD i Vzfce-Preszdein-t-G. VVRIGHT Libra.rzTmz.s'-G. ROCHESTER L. TANNER A I The executive of the' Music Appreciation Club take this opportunity of thanking Orme Limited for their co-operation in lending the club many of the records that made their programmes possible. vkvkflf Kirsten Flagstad by Blyth Young OW MANY of you know the name Kirsten Flagstad? I imagine that most of those do who have not simply read the title of this article and passed on to something else. To others, Grace Moore, Lily Pons, Jeanette MacDonald- and Gladys Swarthout-artists, it is true, in their own field and Within their own range of capacities, are more familiar names. Flag- stad is in a class by herself. A Madame Flagstad is probably the great- est soprano in the world to-day, and one of the greatest of all time. She was born near Oslo, Norway, about the turn of the century. Her father was an orchestra lead- er. Her mother, known even to-day as the musical mama of Norway, was a Page 55

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fthe Twilight of the Godsj. Those of you who saw The Big Broadcast of 1938, have an idea of what she looks like as Briinnhilde, but you can have only a faint conception of the beauty of her voiceg for no manner of reproduction has captured it in all its glory and magnificence. Just two days later I heard the strongest cast the Metropolitan has to offer-the best, indeed, that any opera company could offer-in Lohengrin. Flagstad sang Elsa g the title role was taken by Lauritz Melchior. During my visit to New York in March of this year I heard Flagstad seven times in eleven days. The first was as Isolde in Tristan and Isolde. The performance began twenty minutes after the arrival of the train in New York on March 1, but the mad rush from the station to theatre was amply rewarded. Ever since I have loved music I have wanted to hear Tristan and Isolde more than anything else 5 all that I had an- ticipated was realized., The world's greatest heroic tenor, Lauritz Melchior, sang op- posite Flagstad, as he did in seven of the eight operas I have heard over a period of two years in which she appeared. To hear Melchior sing the one word Isolde and to hear Flagstad reply, singing one syllable on F- Hal -is a thrill never to be forgotten. The love duet in the second act, music which many consider the loveliest ever written, becomes almost unendurably beau- tiful. There is magic in the opera house when these two sing Wagner. Another unforgettable experience was the singing of Briinnhilde int Gotterdaninierung, which I heard twice. Of this performance Olin Downes writes: Madame Flagstad's Briinnhilde is not only beyond the reach of any other living Wagnerian Soprano, but it is her own greatest part. This holds not only as concerns the magnificent voice and the technical resource of its employment, but also because of the sovereign nobility and pathos of her interpretation. . . The final scene finds Madame Flagstad with ample reserve of voice, and also with the stature, the gesture, the epic consciousness, which carries the vast music drama to its complete consummation. 'This is indeed the large utterance of the early gods! During Flagstad's professional career she has sung more than sixty roles in operetta and grand opera. America has heard only ten of these roles, all in German. Before leaving her native land she did all her sing- ing in the Scandinavian tongues. But the difficulties of language would not deter Madame Flagstad from singing Italian roles. Lillian Nordica, one of the great Isoldes of the past, rehearsed the ,role with piano a thousand times before she would consent to sing it in public. Flagstad studied this role for six weeks before singing it in public. She learned the Gotterdammerung Briinnhilde in two weeks. If the music-loving public did not insist upon hearing her so frequently both in operasand in concert, she would no doubt be able within a comparatively short time to encompass the difficulties of the Italian language and thus open upanother wide field of accomplishment. However that may be, of one thing we may be cer- tain-that she will be enshrined among the immortals in the halls of musical fame. , Sfvkvk Positive, means being mistaken at the top of one's voice. New Home Bank and Somerset Street From May First s GOWLING SCHOOL Will be Located atthe Corner of BANK and SOMERSET STREETS These fine premises have been com- pletely renovated and remodelled into the finest and most modern business college premises in Ontario. Large airy rooms well lighted and ventilated making ideal conditions for studying. Special Summer Classes During July and August W. E. Gowling, G. W. Braithwaite, President Principal LUX GLEBANA Page 57