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Soprano Kirsten Flagstad was back in the U.S. for the first time since 1941, when she rejoined her husband in Norway (he died there in prison, charged with collaboration). She had sung neither in Norway nor in Germany, she reminded the Manhattan press; her conscience was quite clear. Yes, she had been criticized by some, but "I have not felt hurt with America." Indeed, she now meant to become a U.S. citizen. She posed for photographers with a scarf given to her in Italy by Arturo Toscanini's daughter; it bore the signature of the famed anti-Fascist himself. Once the Metropolitan Opera's leading Wagnerian soprano, Flagstad was off on a concert tour. She had not heard from the Met, she said.
