Singers you wish you'd heard in the opera house

[Guest]

The greatest soprano I never heard live was Lucia Popp. I was very young when I first heard her singing Queen of the Night on a radio programme one evening, about 30 years ago, and I was absolutely overwhelmed. (I still am, to be honest, every time I put on a CD of hers.) As her voice and career developed, she became a wonderful interpreter of many roles. If I could get into a Tardis and be transported to the Vienna State Opera House (my favourite place) at various points in time, I'd like to have heard her sing Queen of the Night, Susanna, Contessa Almaviva, Marzelline, Daphne, Sophie and the Marschallin, just for starters!

If I could go further back, I'd like to hear Chaliapin, Caruso, Eva Turner and Jarmila Novotna in any of their cherished roles.

Anybody have any more?

[salymap]

I would love to have seen and heard the tenor, Heddle Nash in opera. I saw and heard him in song recitals and oratorio and he was the greatest Gerontius IMHO - and good many others thought so too.

[Barbirollians]

Sena Jurinac in Mozart- well in just about all of her repertoire !

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Gundula Janowitz in Mozart or Strauss; Melchior and Flagstad in Tristan; and, away from the Opera House, there are a few relatives I'd be prepared to sell to have heard Ferrier in Das Lied (Walter or Barbirolli; either would be magical - but, to turn this into pure fantasy, with Wunderlich as tenor).

[aeolium]

Women: Elisabeth Schumann, Lisa della Casa, Margaret Price and Lucia Popp
Men: Julius Patzak, Paul Schoeffler and Tito Gobbi

And if we can go back even further, Josepha Duschek for whom Mozart wrote Bella mia fiamma, addio, and Senesino and Cuzzoni in Giulio Cesare...

[salymap]

I went to several recitals given by Victoria de los Angeles in the newish RFH but wish I could have seen her in opera - although we have her Butterfly, with Beecham isn't it?

Several others I caught at the end of their careers, Callas, Schwartzkopf, Ferrier. And bass Oscar Natzka -just heard him in recital but WHAT a voice.

[Barbirollians]

I went to several recitals given by Victoria de los Angeles in the newish RFH but wish I could have seen her in opera - although we have her Butterfly, with Beecham isn't it?

Several others I caught at the end of their careers, Callas, Schwartzkopf, Ferrier. And bass Oscar Natzka -just heard him in recital but WHAT a voice.

La Boheme with Beecham -saly . Butterfly with Santini I have but I think that she might have recorded it twice .

PS Indeed she did - 1954 with Gavazzeni and de Stefano and Gobbi.

[Mary Chambers]

Maria Callas. I'll never forgive myself for thinking I couldn't afford the ticket.

I'd love to have heard Joan Cross, and I agree with Saly about Heddle Nash.

[Madame Suggia]

Callas for me too...and Crespin.

[Petrushka]

Birgit Nilsson and Wolfgang Windgassen as Brunnhilde/Isolde and Siegfried/Tristan.

I did see (and afterwards meet) Hans Hotter at a Schoenberg Gurrelieder at the 1994 Proms but I would have given much to have seen him in the role of Wotan.

[Flosshilde]

Callas, of course.

&, having had to miss Nina Stemme singing in Act 2 of T&I with the BBCSSO in Glasgow (I had a dreadful cough which I felt I couldn't inflict on others) I fear that I'm not likely to have the opportunity of seeing & hearing her on stage again.

[Historian]

I did see (and afterwards meet) Hans Hotter at a Schoenberg Gurrelieder at the 1994 Proms but I would have given much to have seen him in the role of Wotan.

I sang in the Chorus for that. He was 85 by then but still in fine 'sprechgesang' voice; an echo of what it would have been like to hear him as Wotan.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Teresa Cahill. I heard her once in the concert hall and her voice was the most beautiful I ever heard...

[Zauberfloete]

All really interesting replies - thanks very much. I'm very envious of some of you, I must say!

Being a Lancastrian myself, I'm ashamed that I didn't mention Kathleen Ferrier in my original post. What a superb voice! I, too, would have loved to have heard her in "Das Lied von der Erde". I love the recording she made with Bruno Walter (the emotion in it is almost too much to bear) but I'd not have picked Patzak as the tenor.

Birgit Nilsson as Elektra would have been phenomenal, I imagine, and I'd have given a great deal to have heard her as Brunnhilde, too.

[verismissimo]

What a terrific thread, Zauberfloete.

Frida Leider and Lauritz Melchior in the Ring.

Can't nominate several mentioned already. Saw and heard them!