The Voice of the Century: Kirsten Flagstad

In 1935, the Norwegian soprano Kirsten Flagstad made her United States debut in a live radio broadcast that went across the country and made her an overnight success. Flagstad went on to enjoy an astounding career at the Metropolitan Opera, becoming one of the most well-known singers of the twentieth century.

The Voice of the Century tells Flagstad’s story-one of triumph and tragedy. The shy and stubborn Norwegian singer rescued the New York Metropolitan from bankruptcy in the 1930s, revitalizing interest in Richard Wagner’s operas in the United States. She was also a sensation in Europe, performing at Covent Garden in London, at festivals in Zurich, and at La Scala in Milan. In music history, she is considered one of the foremost Wagner interpreters ever. Yet during and after the Second World War, a campaign to discredit her was launched by leading officials in the Norwegian Foreign Ministry, and she was unjustly accused of harboring Nazi sympathies, of singing to Hitler, and of profiting greatly from the war. This smear campaign resulted in major demonstrations at her performances in the United States. Her fortune was seized, and she had to live under police protection. Finally translated into English, this biography looks into the darkest corners of Norwegian intelligence history, scandals that jeopardized both the police and the prosecution’s credibility.

As creepy and riveting as any thriller, The Voice of the Century is a thoroughly documented account of how a foreign ministry organized a years-long persecution of a world-renowned female artist.

Ingeborg Solbrekken is a Norwegian author and playwright. She has written three books in Norwegian on Kirsten Flagstad.