Top 10 sopranos

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

I'm tempted to offer a couple of 'top ten' entries - one for sopranos with whom I'm more familiar with on disc than on stage; the other for current sopranos who could very well challenge them in time.

Renata Tebaldi
Mirella Freni
Suzanne Danco
Elena Souliotis (yes, I know, a flawed voice, but thrilling - to me - in the same way Callas is to others)
Birgit Nilsson
Lisa Della Casa
Montserrat Caballé
Antonietta Stella (who, if she was singing today, would be a huge star. Overshadowed by Tebaldi/ Callas)
Ileana Cotrubas
Joan Sutherland

Today's top ten:
Anja Harteros
Anna Netrebko
Aleksandra Kurzak
Ailyn Pérez
Anna Caterina Antonacci
Kristine Opolais
Nina Stemme
Renée Fleming
Ekaterina Scherbachenko
Miah Persson

[Richard Tarleton]

In no particular order:

Leontyne Price
Victoria de los Angeles
Gundula Janowitz
Elizabeth Schwarzkopf
Lucia Popp
Renata Tebaldi
Felicity Lott
Emma Kirkby
Ellie Ameling
Rosa Ponselle

Great list Rolmill. You're the first to mention Ponselle I think, one of the very greatest voices in her chosen repertoire in the 20th century, as far as one can tell from hissy CDs. Very much a case of "Top 10 for what?", IMV. One could easily come up with a Top 10 Wagnerian, or Verdian, sopranos, or bel canto, or song...you have generalists and specialists....there are so many different types of soprano, it depends very much on what you listen to. And Emma Kirkby is unlikely to be on your list if you don't listen to early music....

How many voting for Callas actually heard her in her prime, i.e. in the 1950s and 1960s, or at all?

The greatest voice I've heard live, beyond a doubt, is Joan Sutherland, but she was rather sui generis, inhabiting the world of bel canto and for much of her life limiting herself to performing with her husband. How you compare her to Birgit Nilsson, or Emma Kirkby, I have no idea.

Some favourites heard live:

Sutherland (Lucia)
Kiri te Kanawa (Countess, 1972)
Margaret Price
Ileana Cotrubas
Elizabeth Soderstrom
Felicity Lott
Nina Stemme
Anne Evans
Jessye Norman
Emma Kirkby

[Hornspieler]

Some good choices there Ferney but you can't count!

Arleen Auger
Felicity Lott
Anne Schwanewilms
Kiri te Kanawa
Lesley Garrett
Barbara Bonney
Kate Royal
Dawn Upshaw
Joan Rodgers
Emma Kirkby

Plus a couple of mezzos

Alice Coote
Cecilia Bartoli

and assuming we are looking at classical for the main list

a few from pop/rock/jazz/musicals though some of these maybe are mezzos

Cheryl Bentyne
Marni Nixon
Linda Ronstadt
Judy Collins
Vikki Carr
Barbara Streisand
Mama Cass
Stacey Kent
Dianne Reeves
Sandy Denny

and Minnie Ripperton who is definitely not a mezzo.

Oh and I've missed off
Marti Webb
Julie Covington
Linda Thompson

........ and what about Cleo Laine?

One of the most remarkable voices that I have ever heard - and equally good in the classical repertoire, such as Kurt Wiell's "Seven Deadly Sins" and Schoenberg's "Pierrot Lunaire"

Soprano? She could sing anything from coloratura to basso profundo if a piece required it.

Hs

Oh, and I forgot to mention Elisabeth Schumann and Margaret Ritchie.

Leslie Garret? Yer 'avin' a larf, aint yer?

[Rolmill]

Great list Rolmill. You're the first to mention Ponselle I think, one of the very greatest voices in her chosen repertoire in the 20th century, as far as one can tell from hissy CDs.

Yes, from the ancient CDs she seems as close to being the complete soprano as I'm ever likely to hear. I'm also slightly surprised that no one else has mentioned either Leontyne Price (at her peak, supreme in Verdi) or Elizabeth Schwarzkopf (a "marmite" choice, perhaps, but great in a range of repertoire from Mozart opera to Wolf lieder).

Very much a case of "Top 10 for what?", IMV. One could easily come up with a Top 10 Wagnerian, or Verdian, sopranos, or bel canto, or song...you have generalists and specialists....there are so many different types of soprano

I agree, that might be easier - but the (entirely subjective and essentially pointless) inter-genre comparison is fun! Interesting also to distinguish between those heard live and those only heard through recordings (similar to IGI's two lists above).

[Tony Halstead]

Yes, from the ancient CDs she seems as close to being the complete soprano as I'm ever likely to hear. I'm also slightly surprised that no one else has mentioned either Leontyne Price (at her peak, supreme in Verdi) or Elizabeth Schwarzkopf (a "marmite" choice, perhaps, but great in a range of repertoire from Mozart opera to Wolf lieder).



I agree, that might be easier - but the (entirely subjective and essentially pointless) inter-genre comparison is fun! Interesting also to distinguish between those heard live and those only heard through recordings (similar to IGI's two lists above).

Another 'marmite' choice would be Teresa Stich-Randall, (1927-2007), who, with her pure 'minimal/ non-vibrato' voice was a veritable forerunner of the various 'period' or 'authentic' sopranos of the last 30-odd years.

[cloughie]

........ and what about Cleo Laine?

One of the most remarkable voices that I have ever heard - and equally good in the classical repertoire, such as Kurt Wiell's "Seven Deadly Sins" and Schoenberg's "Pierrot Lunaire"

Soprano? She could sing anything from coloratura to basso profundo if a piece required it.

Hs

Indeed so and daughter Jacqui appears to have inherited the singing genes!

[umslopogaas]

If we are going to include Florence Foster Jenkins, we should also include Anna Russell, who could sing all the lead roles in Wagner's 'Ring', male or female, God, human, dwarf or Valkyrie. I have CD's of both those ladies in full flight and they are very, very funny.

While on the subject of greats from the past like Ponselle, what about Amelita Galli-Curci? I have a Nimbus 'Prima Voce' CD of her recordings from the days of four minutes a side and she's certainly the queen of the resounding conclusion!

I'm a bit mystified by the strength of antagonism to Callas. I can understand that some dont like the actual sound of her voice, but surely no-one can deny she was a great singing actress? Callas in the last fifteen minutes of Cherubini's 'Medea' is terrifying, most soprano's can make Medea sound pretty scary, but Callas can make you want to hide behind the sofa.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I'm a bit mystified by the strength of antagonism to Callas.

??? Four of us have included her in our lists (or, in one[EDIT: TWO! Cheers, BeefO!] instance, made her their list!) and only Alpie demurred. Richard Tarleton asked how many of us heard her in her heyday, but I don't think this was criticism.

Callas in the last fifteen minutes of Cherubini's 'Medea' is terrifying, most soprano's can make Medea sound pretty scary, but Callas can make you want to hide behind the sofa.

... and that Live recording with Bernstein! Brrrrrr!!!!

EDIT 2: OK, cloughie doesn't like her either - but he posted after!

[Beef Oven!]

1. Callas
2. Maria Callas
3. Maria
4. Callas, Maria
5. M. Callas
6. Mara. C
7. Sophia Cecelia Kalos
8. Kalos
9. Sophia Kalos
10. S.C. Kalos

[cloughie]

I'm a bit mystified by the strength of antagonism to Callas. I can understand that some dont like the actual sound of her voice, but surely no-one can deny she was a great singing actress?

Precisely that I dislike the sound of her voice and that deters me from watching her - at times her voice is unmusical. However dramatic she is I don't want to hear her blaring out at me in a language I cannot understand.

[cloughie]

1. Callas
2. Maria Callas
3. Maria
4. Callas, Maria
5. M. Callas
6. Mara. C
7. Sophia Cecelia Kalos
8. Kalos
9. Sophia Kalos
10. S.C. Kalos

Maybe you suggest she is su·per·callas·frag·i·lis·tic·ex·pi·al·i·do·cious?

...but then!

[ahinton]

Jessye Norman
Christine Brewer
Felicity Lott
Lisa della Casa
Birgit Nilsson
Sarah Leonard (whom, extraordinarily, no one has yet mentioned)
Marion Anderson
Jane Manning
Renée Fleming
Alessandra Marc

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Sarah Leonard, indeed - and Phyllis Bryn-Julson and Honor Shepherd.

(But wasn't Marian Anderson a contralto? - Anyway, three examples of the magnificent Sarah:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-MXpyXL-tE

Varese: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukuA9iJ4bos
Feldman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0exs9F-888s

[ahinton]

(But wasn't Marian Anderson a contralto?

Of course! I only included her to see if anyone would notice! (and you didn't let me down!). Wonderful singer, though! (and the typo was unintentional)...

Anyway, three examples of the magnificent Sarah:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-MXpyXL-tE

Varese: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukuA9iJ4bos
Feldman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0exs9F-888s

...for which vast thanks!...

[kea]

I'm afraid I don't listen to post-1800 opera often enough to know most of the well-known sopranos. The vibrato-heavy operatic style puts me off.

A couple that come to mind are Emma Kirkby and Montserrat Figueras. And whoever this is.