In the Steps of Flagstad: Mike Ashman assesses the qualities of the latest Wagnerian superstar

Review of Lise Davidsen, Wagner and Strauss Arias and Songs: Wagner ’Dich, teure Halle’, ’Allmächt’ge Jungfrau!’ (Tannhäuser); Strauss ’Es gibt ein Reich’ (Ariadne auf Naxos); 4 Lieder, op. 27; Wiegenlied, op. 41, no. 1; Malven, orch. Rihm, TrV 297; Vier Letzte Lieder, conducted Salonen, 2019 (Decca, 1 CD).

November 2019, Volume 13, Number 3, 95–6.

A flood of prizes – including three from Plácido Domingo’s Operalia in addition to the Queen Sonja and Queen Ingrid competitions – proved the overture to international Wagner and Strauss appearances for Norwegian soprano Lisa Davidsen. She’s now 32 at the time of writing, and her last season’s Wagner included a collection of smaller roles in the last Covent Garden Ring and the Tannhäuser Elisabeth in Munich, Zurich and at her Bayreuth Festival debut in the recent new Valery Gergiev/Tobias Kratzer production.