Metropolitan Opera House
December 6, 1941 Matinee Broadcast
DIE WALKÜRE {326}
Wagner-Wagner
Brünnhilde..............Helen Traubel
Siegmund................Lauritz Melchior
Sieglinde...............Astrid Varnay [Debut]
Wotan...................Friedrich Schorr
Fricka..................Kerstin Thorborg
Hunding.................Alexander Kipnis
Gerhilde................Thelma Votipka
Grimgerde...............Mary Van Kirk [Debut]
Helmwige................Maria Van Delden [Debut]
Ortlinde................Maxine Stellman
Rossweisse..............Lucielle Browning
Schwertleite............Anna Kaskas
Siegrune................Helen Olheim
Waltraute...............Doris Doe
Conductor...............Erich Leinsdorf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3OAHSWs5-4
Review by Noel Strauss, The New York Times
Astrid Varnay's name was not on the program, for she essayed Sieglinde's music at short notice, Miss Varnay, still in her twenties, made an instant success all the more remarkable considering the fact that this was her first appearance on any operatic stage. The exceedingly comely Swedish-American soprano acted with a skill and grace only possible to those with an inborn talent for the theatre. In fact, Sieglinde in Miss Varnay's hands was one of the most satisfying and convincing portrayals the season has brought forth.
Vocally, Miss Varnay was best suited to the music that lies high in its tessitura. As a result she did her most significant singing in the second and third acts, where her intense and dramatically poignant treatment of every phrase matched her acting in effectiveness and allure. In the first act much of the score was too low for her voice, which had not enough body to be audible in many a passage asking power in the middle and nether tones, where, too, the sounds were not always absolutely firm.
Miss Varnay is a valuable addition to the Metropolitan roster, but her fine abilities would be employed to much better purpose in roles making less heavy demands on her voice, a voice of such innate beauty that it should not be used in parts like this, which might easily impair its quality.
Video desde : 
pero este en condiciones- utiliza exclusivamente cualidades canoras para conseguir que se tema y se odie a su personaje, que es de lo que se trata, y Teresa Iervolino –mezzo haciendo de contralto, vale- raya a gran nivel en su difícil papel de Orsini. Armiliato dirige con estilo, aunque siempre dispuesto a sacrificar el sonido de la orquesta al protagonismo de los cantantes, lo que tampoco es una crítica. 
porque la música de Donizetti en general y de esta obra en particular solo toca el cielo con interpretaciones geniales.
