3/9/2023 0 Comments Best opera singer of all timeZinka Milanov (1906-89) was the greatest Verdi soprano I ever heard. Rather than sing the aria’s last word, she just inserts a vowel – ‘ah’. The last act aria from her debut role shows a dark and rich spinto voice, but it has none of the glory that is displayed in the Milanov version below. I talked to many who had heard her live and they were unanimous in their praise of her vocal beauty. When I first started going to the Met, less than 20 years had passed since her retirement from opera. While they are quite good they do not reveal the miracle that all who heard her in performance say she was. I’ve listened to just about all of her recordings. Rosa Ponselle (1897-1981) made her operatic debut opposite Enrico Caruso in 1918 in the Met’s first performance of Verdi’s La Forza del Destino. As you could have predicted, the house was always sold out. She performed Isolde 73 times at the Met, almost always with Lauritz Melchior as Tristan. Her decision to return to her husband and native land during the Nazi occupation of Norway made her a controversial figure after the war, though she only performed in neutral countries during the conflict and never collaborated with the Nazis. Her combination of vocal beauty and power made her unmatched. It was the Met that made her famous throughout the operatic world. She was relatively unknown before her New York appearances. She returned to the house in 1951 for her last appearances with the company. She sang 260 performances, all but 16 between 19, at the Met. Kirsten Flagstad (1895-1962) was the dominant Wagnerian soprano of the pre WWII years. I heard all these sopranos, with the exceptions of Flagstad and Ponselle, in performance. The singers are presented in the order of their birth. Feel free to disagree and post your own list. As I’ve previously said about previous compilations, this list represents nothing more than personal opinion and taste. I have excluded the high sopranos like Tetrazzini and Galli-Curci, but I still have a surplus of riches that my limit of 10 causes me to omit. With all the great sopranos of different vocal types active in the 20th century, picking just 10 is a daunting task.
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