original direction of Geraint Jones. (HMV ALP 1026, EMG review January 1953). A live performance with Teyte is available on the Walhall label. The Alceste (original Italian version edited by Geraint Jones) in which she also made a farewell was recorded with Raoul Jobin, Alexander Young, Marion Lowe, Thomas Hemsley, Joan Clark, Rosemary Thayer, Geraint Jones Orchestra and singers, Geraint Jones (Decca LP LXT 5273–5276). (Her part was recorded April 28, April 30, and May 1, 1956.) In 1956, she moved to Decca where in the autumn of her career further important studio recordings followed: Several albums of Grieg, Sibelius, Brahms, etc., with orchestra and piano Hymns (traditional Norwegian language hymns) Wagner arias with Knappertsbusch (stereo) Acts I and III of Die Walküre (as Sieglinde and Brünnhilde, respectively) as well as the Brünnhilde/Siegmund duet from Act II (these conducted variously by Knappertsbusch and Solti, as a sort of preparation for Decca's complete Ring project). Her great valedictory as Fricka in the Decca Rheingold of 1958. Almost to the end of her life, Flagstad continued to sing in fine voice, although she increasingly sang mezzo-soprano material or in a mezzo range: besides the Rheingold Fricka (a mezzo role), Decca planned to cast her also as the Walkure Fricka and the Gotterdammerung Waltraute for its complete Ring (in the event, both roles were sung by Christa Ludwig), and also to record her in Brahms’ Four Serious Songs and Alto Rhapsody; that these plans were shelved only by her final illness and death stands as a testament to her superbly consistent vocal abilities, and to the respect and affection in which she was held to the end by record companies and the public. References Notes Sources Biancolli, Louis: The Flagstad Manuscript :an autobiography as told to L.B. (Putnam, New York: 1952, Heinemann London 1953) 293 pgs available online McArthur, Edwin: Flagstad: A Personal Memoir (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, reprint 1980). Rasponi, Lanfranco: The Last Prima Donnas (Alfred A Knopf. 1956) Rein, Aslaug: Kirsten Flagstad (Oslo: Mortensen, 1967) Gunnarson, Torstein: Sannheten om Kirsten Flagstad (Oslo: 1985) Vogt, Howard: Flagstad: Singer of the Century (Specker and Warburg, London, 1987). Metropolitan Opera website/Met history/historical archives. See external links. Further reading Liese, Kirsten, Wagnerian Heroines. A Century Of Great Isoldes and Brünnhildes, English translation: Charles Scribner, Edition Karo, Berlin, 2013. External links Kirsten Flagstad Collection (ARS.2004-01), Stanford Archive of Recorded Sound Kirsten Flagstad collection of noncommercial