A truly heroic,dramatic soprano,this is the sound of. Brunhilde!!!a great dramatic soprano in voice and temperament!!!!! Brava. Varnay!! Brava!! Molto. Brava!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Of course one could claim Flagstad and Nilsson as the Wagnerian Quintessensce, but a Trinity would only be possible to be formed accomplishing Varnay at the Walhalla of Wagnerian Singers. What a voice, what an enormous amount of artistry! Artistrid Varnay! Hail!
Silly to compare three superlative artists. Varnay brings warmth and intelligence; Nilsson, power and breath control; and Flagstad, a girlish, romantic roundness to the role. I'm grateful for them all.
Varnay's voice and manner were impressive, but like Flagstad, she was far too hieratic and matronly, like a marble statue. Brünnhilde, like Isolde, is not a middle-aged hausfrau. She is a warmly feminine creation, a personification of Goethe's 'ewig-Weibliche', as is, in a wholly different manner, Kundry. Brünnhilde is not a hectoring virago with cold steely top notes a la Nilsson. Neither is she a placid, phlegmatic vocione with virtually no dramatic profile past that of the most vague and generalised sort; a portrayal with which Mme Flagstad made audiences familiar. The only singer who has fully encompassed the character of Brünnhilde, both musically and dramatically, is Frida Leider.
