Karen-Marie Flagstad

Karen-Marie Flagstad (November 24, 1904 – December 25, 1992) was a Norwegian soprano opera singer and one of Norway's leading singers in her time. Born in Oslo, she was the sister of the world-renowned singer Kirsten Flagstad, and the daughter of the conductor Michael Flagstad and the pianist Maja Flagstad.

Flagstad traveled abroad and sang on American radio. On the German stage, she played Salome in Richard Strauss's opera of the same name, and Ariadne in his Ariadne auf Naxos. She was married to the Austrian pianist Johann Crkal (1891–1939) and she performed in Italy and France as Karen Maria Crkal, first as a guest together with her sister as Brünnhilde at La Scala as Ortlinde in Wagner's Die Walküre (1949).

Flagstad also appeared in other operas (including Carl Maria von Weber's Der Freischütz, Beethoven's Fidelio, and Eugen d'Albert's Tiefland for NRK), appeared on radio with her brother Lasse Flagstad on piano (1946), was a director in the Norwegian Opera Association (Norsk Operaforbund), and worked with the People's Theater in Oslo.

Flagstad was employed at the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet (led by her sister) from 1958 to 1961, where she was acclaimed in the role of Ågot in Waldemar Thrane's Fjeldeventyret (The Mountain Tale, 1960) and later worked as a répétiteur (like her mother). She died in Oslo in 1992, at the age of 88.

Releases Richard Wagner's Die Walküre (1950). Live from La Scala. Directed by Wilhelm Furtwängler. Richard Wagner's Die Walküre (1955). From the Paris Opera. Richard Wagner's Götterdämmerung (Decca, 1956). With Norwegian artists and director Øivin Fjeldstad.