Greatest Female Opera Singers

This volatile opera diva was born Sophie Cecilia Kalos in New York City to Greek émigrés on December 2, 1923. Her father set up a pharmacy and changed the family name from Kalogeropoulos to Callas. As a child Maria studied the piano. When her parents separated (she was 14 at the time), her mother returned to Athens with Maria and her sister.

The budding singer was quickly accepted into the National Conservatoire where she was taught singing lessons by Maria Trivella. She performed her first recital within the year and in 1939 won a prize for her stage debut in the Conservatoire's production of "Cavalleria Rusticana." In 1941, the soprano dramatico d'agilita made her professional debut in "Boccaccio" with the Lyric Theatre Company. While there she made a semi-name for herself with performances of "Tosca" and "Fidelio."

Impending war led her back to the United States in 1944 where she reclaimed the name of Maria Callas. She was offered a contract from the Met which she turned down because among the three roles she was offered to sing there was Butterfly and she believed that she was too obese to sing the fragile 14 year-old Butterfly, her friends considered her to be crazy turning down the Met while she was so unknown.

Maria performed elsewhere (Chicago, etc.) before returning to Europe in the post-war years where she met Giovanni Battista Meneghini, a wealthy industrialist and avid opera fan. They married in 1949 and he immediately took control of her career. She reached her zenith at La Scala (1951-1958), also recording during that time. In 1956, she finally made her debut at the Met as "Norma" with performances of "Tosca" and "Lucia" following.

Within a couple of years her temperamental outbursts and excessive demands began to rise full force, resulting in a number of dismissals and walkouts. After meeting Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis through her husband, a torrid affair erupted and her marriage ended. Maria gave up the stage in the early 1960s for the jet-set life with Onassis, but continued with occasional concerts. Despite experiencing vocal problems, she made one unforgettable comeback on stage in 1964-1965 when she toured with her personal favorites ("Norma" in Paris and "Tosca" at the Met). Weak and tired, her final curtain on stage rang down in July of 1965 in Covent Garden.

With her career over, she renounced her American citizenship and expected to marry Onassis. But their relationship was a stormy one and it eventually tapered off with Onassis instead marrying Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in 1968. Maria was completely devastated and those around her say she never recovered. The following year she filmed an unsuccessful production of Medea (1969) and eventually set up master classes at Juilliard. In one last comeback, she attempted a European tour of recitals but her voice completely failed her. Her last public performance was on November 11, 1975.

Riddled by sadness and despair, and by now firmly addicted to sleeping pills, Maria turned reclusive in her last year and died of a heart attack in 1977 at age 53. Despite a career that flourished less than two decades, Callas must be respected as one of the more important and recognizable opera legends. She was certainly one of the most emotive and visually dramatic. What also carries her today is, of course, her grandly turbulent and tragic image -- an Édith Piaf of opera.

Joan Sutherland was born on 7 November 1926 in Point Piper, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. She was an actress, known for Spectre (2015), Carlito's Way (1993) and Great Performances at the Met (1977). She was married to Richard Bonynge. She died on 10 October 2010 in Montreux, Switzerland.

Leontyne Price was born on 10 February 1927 in Laurel, Mississippi, USA. She is an actress, known for Romeo + Juliet (1996), Great Performances at the Met (1977) and NBC Television Opera Theatre (1949). She was previously married to William Warfield.

Birgit Nilsson was born on 17 May 1918 in Västra Karup, Skåne län, Sweden. She was an actress, known for Army of Thieves (2021), Da 5 Bloods (2020) and Tristan und Isolde (1974). She was married to Bertil Niklasson. She died on 25 December 2005 in Västra Karup, Skåne län, Sweden.

Rosa Ponselle was born to Neapolitan immigrants in Conneticut. She was a natural-born singer and launched a career first in Vaudville, where she was working in 1918, when Enrico Caruso discovered her and persuaded her to join the Metropolitan Opera. Her debut occurred in Verdi's "La Forza del Destino" as Leonora. She had had no formal training as an opera singer and for nearly twenty years thereafter managed great successes as a soprano at the Met and in other opera houses in America and Europe. Primarily remembered for her performances in Verdi operas, she abruptly withdrew from the stage in 1937 and retired at the age of 40 -- newly wed to Carle A. Jackson -- to a home near Baltimore, Maryland. She continued to stay active in the operatic world, occasionally recording, but mostly devoting her energies and talents for the next 44 years to a school she formed at her home, where the likes of Placido Domingo and Beverly Sills (among others) were coached and encouraged onto their own successful operatic careers.

Born in Stranstuen, Hamar, Norway, Norwegian soprano Kisten Flagstad's father was a conductor, and her mother was a singing coach and pianist as well as her first teacher. Flagstad continued her studies in Oslo with Ellen Schyte-Jacobsen and in Stockholm with Dr. Gillis Bratt. While still a student, she made her début at the National Theater in Oslo in 1913 as Nuri in D'Albert's Tiefland. For the next 18 years she sang exclusively in Scandinavia, performing in opera, operetta and musical comedy. Flagstad's first Isolde in Oslo in 1932 led to Bayreuth engagements in minor parts in 1933 and to roles as Sieglinde and Gutrune in 1934. Later in 1934, Flagstad turned her sights on North America and auditioned at the Metropolitan Opera to succeed the reigning Wagnerian soprano Frida Leider. Her unheralded Met début as Sieglinde, broadcast nationwide on February 2, 1935, created a sensation. Four days later, she sang Isolde, and later that month, performed Brünhilde in Die Walküre and Die Götterdämmerung for the first time. Almost overnight she was regarded as the pre-eminent Wagnerian soprano of her generation. Later that season, Flagstad also sang Elsa, Elisabeth, and her first Kundry. Fidelio (1936) was her only non-Wagnerian role at the Met before the war. She sang the same repertory in San Francisco in 1935-38 and in Chicago in 1937.

In 1936 and 1937 she performed the roles of Isolde, Brünhilde and Senta at Covent Garden under Sir Thomas Beecham, Fritz Reiner and Wilhelm Furtwängler, arousing as much enthusiasm there as in New York. In 1941 Flagstad returned to Nazi-occupied Norway to join her second husband, whose collaboration with the Nazis led to his arrest after World War II. Although her own wartime record was free from controversy, her return to Norway during the war and a certain political naïvété in her nature created much ill-feeling towards her, particularly in the USA.

During four consecutive Covent Garden seasons, from 1948 to 1951, Flagstad repeated all her regular Wagnerian roles, including Kundry and Sieglinde. She returned to San Francisco in 1948 but was not invited back to the Metropolitan Opera until Sir Rudolph Bing became manager. In the 1950-1951 season, although she was well into her 50s, she showed herself still in remarkable form as Isolde, Brünnhilde and Fidelio. Flagstad's final role at the Metropolitan Opera was as Alceste in Gluck's opera. Her final operatic performances were as Purcell's Dido at the Mermaid Theatre in London in 1953. Flagstad continued to record and sing concerts, and was director of the Norwegian National Opera from 1958-1960.

The enduring purity, beauty and power of Flagstad's tone probably owed much, not only to natural gifts and sound training, but to the enforced repose of the war years and the fact that she had undertaken no heavy roles until middle life. She was regarded as an impeccable musician in matters of rhythm and intonation. While she was not the most dramatic or magnetic of Wagnerian heroines, no one within living memory surpassed her sheer beauty and consistency of line and tone. Of her many records, the complete Tristan und Isolde with Furtwängler undoubtedly offers the finest memorial to her interpretive art in its maturity. Her pre-war recordings, however, showcase her voice in its freshest brilliance and clarity.

The dark and smoldering American soprano Anna Moffo was born in Wayne Pennsylvania, on June 27, 1932, and, following graduation at Radnor High School, studied at Philadelphia's Curtis Institute of Music and in Rome, Italy on a Fulbright scholarship at the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia. At one time she was actually considering joining a nunnery but her love for music won out. Her successful combination of glamorous beauty and exciting singing style made her one of opera's most popular draws in the late 1950s and 1960s.

Moffo took her first professional bow in 1955 as Norine in Donizetti's "Don Pasquale" in Spoleto, and later that year scored highly as Cio-Cio-San in Puccini's "Madama Butterfly" in an Italian TV production directed by Mario Lanfranchi, whom she married in 1957. Strenthening her reputation in Saltzburg and Vienna, Moffo made her U.S. debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1957 as Mimi in Puccini's "La Boheme." Her first time on the Metropolitan stage came with the role of Violetta in Verdi's "La Traviata." Over the years her bel canto repertoire would include Micaela in "Carmen," Gilda in "Rigoletto" and Liu in "Turandot." Arguably, the zenith of her Met career coincided with her appearance in the title role of Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor" opposite Carlo Bergonzi's Edgardo in January of 1965. In the 1960s, Moffo also began appearing occasionally in Italian films, including feisty roles in the Napoleonic war epic The Battle of Austerlitz (1960) with Rossano Brazzi; the comedy La serva padrona (1964), directed by husband Lanfranchi; Menage all'italiana (1965) [Menage, Italian Style] co-starring Ugo Tognazzi; and the comedy Il divorzio (1970) [The Divorce]. She also filmed her Violette in La Traviata (1967) and Lucia di Lammermoor (1971), both directed by Lanfranchi.

The multiple Grammy-nominated Moffo's singing career was finished when just in her 40s. Taking on too much too soon (she in one year took on 12 new roles), her voice burnt out quickly. Her last regular performance at the Met was received poorly as Violetta in 1976, her voice having fallen into a serious state of disrepair. She did return briefly for a one-time duet with baritone Robert Merrill in the company's centennial gala. Her marriage to Lanfranchi ended in divorce in 1972, but her second marriage to NBC broadcast executive/RCA chairman Robert Sarnoff in 1974 proved more durable and lasted until his death in 1997. Her later years were dogged by illness. Battling breast cancer for almost a decade, Moffo died of a stroke at age 73 on March 10, 2006, in New York City. She had no children of her own but was survived by three stepchildren.

Her childhood was shaped by the Spanish Civil War and the modest means of her working-class family. Her musical talent developed early and she was already singing classical cantatas at the age of seven. From 1942 she trained in singing at the Conservatorio Superior de Musica in Barcelona. She was able to study thanks to a scholarship. In 1954 she finished with the best award. The following year, Montserrat Caballé made his debut in Reus, southern Catalonia, in the leading female role in the comic opera "La serva padrona" by the Italian composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi. She then received a three-year engagement at the theater in Basel from 1956. From 1959 to 1962 she worked at the theater in Bremen. During this time in German-speaking countries, she learned to speak the local language fluently. 1965 was the beginning of her great international career. On April 20th of this year, she briefly replaced her pregnant colleague Marilyn Horne in the opera "Lukrezia Borga" by Gaetano Donizetti, which took place as a concert performance at Carnegie Hall in New York.

Montserrat Caballé was enthusiastically celebrated by the audience, highly praised by the press and mentioned alongside renowned personalities such as Maria Callas and Joan Sutherland. With this event she became a star and the doors of the most important international houses opened to her. Immediately afterwards, the Metropolitan Opera contacted her with a permanent contract. There she started in the role of Marguérite in the master opera "Faust" by the French composer Charles Gounod. This was followed by a record contract with the music label RCA Records in New York City. In 1962 she met her future husband, the tenor Bernabé Marti. This year she appeared with him in the opera production of Giacomo Puccini's "Madame Butterfly" at the Teatro del Liceo in Barcelona. Two years later, the two married in the Benedictine monastery of Santa Maria de Montserrat in the mountains of the same name near Barcelona. From 1971, the soprano performed regularly at the State Opera in Hamburg. Her favorite composers include Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini, Verdi and Puccini. In addition, Caballé often worked as a concert singer.

In 1986, she was diagnosed with a benign brain tumor. She became known to a wider, more operatic audience through her legendary performance on the rock crossover title "Barcelona" on the occasion of the 1992 Olympic Games there, which she sang together with Freddie Mercury and which comes from the 1987 album of the same name. This and other engagements show the versatility of the artist Caballé. The solo title was written by Mercury. Her album "Friends For Life" was released in 1997 with the participation of Bruce Dickinson, Johnny Hallyday, Johnny Logan, Gino Vannelli and Helmut Lotti. A year later, Caballé was awarded the Bambi. The singer celebrated her comeback as an opera diva in 2002 at the Gran Teatro des Liceo in Barcelona after ten years away from the stage. In 2007 she was awarded the Echo Klassik Music Prize for her life's work. In the same year on April 1st she returned to the stage of the Vienna State Opera after 18 years. She played and sang the role of Duchesse de Crakentorp in Gaetano Donizetti's opera "La Fille du Régiment", an international production between the Vienna State Opera, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and the Metropolitan Opera New York.

The diva's other awards include the Order of Doña Isabel La Católica as the highest title of the Spanish government, R.SH Gold for pop music from Radio Schleswig-Holstein, the Federal Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and the French Cross of Honor for Arts and Science. Montserrat Caballé also volunteers as a United Nations ambassador. With her excellent bel canto interpretations, she is one of the greatest singers in the field and its innovators. In addition to her exceptional artistic qualities, her more than 90 opera roles and her around 4,000 performances made her popular as one of the greatest opera singers. In addition to the opera stage and musical theater, she delighted audiences with her heartwarming appearances in talk shows, galas and film documentaries.

Victoria de los Ángeles was born on 1 November 1923 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. She was an actress, known for Rat Race (2001), Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997) and Atonement (2007). She was married to Enrique Magriñá Mir. She died on 15 January 2005 in Barcelona, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.

Elisabeth Schwarzkopf was born on 9 December 1915 in Jarotschin, Prussia, Germany [now Jarocin, Wielkopolskie, Poland]. She was an actress, known for Closer (2004), Der Rosenkavalier (1961) and Der Verteidiger hat das Wort (1944). She was married to Walter Legge. She died on 3 August 2006 in Schruns, Vorarlberg, Austria.

This vibrant, fine-humored coloratura was able to accomplish what most others of her ilk could or would not do -- she humanized opera and made it approachable to the masses. There were no diva-like traits in this star and the public absolutely adored her for it. Dubbed "America's Queen of Opera" in 1971 by Time magazine, Beverly Sills, the lovely blonde with the toothy smile and fireplace-warm personality, also gained notice for her rise to stardom without benefit of European training, eventually paving the way for other American-trained singers to succeed without the accustomed "Met certification". During her career she recorded 18 full-length operas as well as numerous recital discs. A Victor Herbert album she recorded won a Grammy Award in 1978. If not one of its most distinctive and charismatic voices, she certainly became opera's most accessible figurehead and with it enticed a surprisingly wide audience who would have typically turned away from the long-haired art form.

Brooklyn-born Belle Miriam Silverman arrived on May 25, 1929, to Russian-Jewish émigrés and the good humor already started at birth when she was nicknamed "Bubbles" due to bubbles emanating from her mouth as she arrived. At age 3 she made her debut on a kiddie show and won a Brooklyn "beautiful baby" contest as well. Her singing gifts were detected early on and she began to study at age 7. Performing increasingly on various radio shows well into her teen years, she made her operatic debut at age 18 singing the role of Frasquita in "Carmen" with the Philadelphia Civic Opera.

In the early 1950s Beverly toured with the Charles L. Wagner Opera Company and established herself in the roles of Violetta in "La Traviata" and Micaela in "Carmen". The highlight during this time came with her role as Helen of Troy in "Mephistopheles" with the San Francisco Opera in 1953. She met future husband Peter Greenough, an associate editor, while touring with the New York City Opera in 1955 (she had auditioned unsuccessfully for the company for nearly 4 years). The couple married a year later and went on to have two children: Meredith and Peter Jr. Despite her sunny, optimistic demeanor, Beverly had her fair share of misfortune. Her daughter was born deaf and son born autistic. For the remainder of her life she became an avid spokesperson for children with particular needs.

Her buildup on the opera scene was surprisingly gradual. Over the years she developed a strong repertoire of leading roles in the works of Mozart, Handel, Offenbach, Donizetti, Rossini and Verdi. Stardom came with the role of Cleopatra in Handel's "Julius Caesar" in 1966 at Lincoln Center, and she confirmed it with subsequent roles in "Le Coq d'Or, "Mamon", "Lucia di Lammermoor" "The Siege of Corinth" and "Il Trittico".

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s she made herself available to the public in lighter forums at such open venues as the Hollywood Bowl. She willingly shared both the stage and small screen with such unlikely co-stars as Carol Burnett ("Sills and Burnett at the Met"), Danny Kaye, John Denver, Tony Bennett, Johnny Carson and even the Muppets. She won four Emmys for her interview show "Lifestyles with Beverly Sills" in the late 70s. On the operatic side, some of her televised performances included that of "The Barber of Seville", "La Traviata" and "Manon".

Beverly's lyric soprano began to falter at around age 50 in the late 1970s. She bid her audiences adieu in a 1980 performance of "Die Fledermaus" with Joan Sutherland for the San Diego Opera. Later that decade she was the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1980 and was paid tribute at the 1985 Kennedy Center Honors for her lifetime of contribution to the arts.

In later years Beverly worked behind the scenes after taking over the mismanaged City Opera Company and turning things around as its general director. She retired successfully from that leadership post in 1989 and five years later became chairman of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Retiring in 2002, she took over the chair for the Metropoliatan Opera itself until 2005 due to family obligations and health issues. Her husband Peter died in September of 2006; ten months later Beverly would follow.

(Obviously) a non-smoker all her life, Beverly nevertheless developed lung cancer. Her father had died of the same disease back in 1947. She died on July 2, 2007 at her Manhattan residence. Her two children and one grandchild survive.

Of Italian and French ancestry, famed operatic soprano Lily Pons was born Alice Josephine Pons near Cannes, France in 1898. She studied the piano as a child and entered the Paris Conservatoire at age 13. At the onset of World War I in 1914, which interrupted her education, Lili moved to Cannes with her mother and younger sister where she played piano and sang for French troops at special events.

In 1925, Lili's singing skills began to eclipse her piano talents. Encouraged by soprano Dyna Beumer, she also met and later married August Mesritz, a successful publisher, who agreed to fund her singing career. Studying in Paris, she took up intently with opera singer and entrepreneur Alberto de Gorostiaga and French soprano Alice Zeppilli.

Ms. Pons made her professional debut in the difficult title role of "Lakme" in 1928. She continued to sing at Paris opera houses, building up her repertoire with roles as Gilda in "Rigoletto," Violetta in "La Traviata," Olympia in "The Tales of Hoffmann," and Rosina in "The Barber of Seville" would be included in her repertoire. She debuted at the Met in 1931 and was instantly revered for her critically-lauded performance as "Lucia de Lammermoor." She exuded beauty, charm, range and glamour, making her one of the most popular prima donnas of her time. Specializing in French and Italian coloratura parts, she later became a durable figure at the Met, remaining with the company for nearly three decades. She was the first soprano who could reach the high "F", composer Delibes wrote in his opera "Lakme." "The Bell Song" from the aforementioned opera, became her signature piece. Though she possessed a rather small voice, it is rightly stated that Pons could hold a high "D" for nearly a minute.

Lily's international success eventually crossed over into Hollywood movies where plush operettas were all the rage. Pons would star in three vehicle films, the least number compared to her warbling rivals at the time, Jeanette MacDonald, Gladys Swarthout and Grace Moore. After filming her trio of romantic musical comedies -- I Dream Too Much (1935) opposite Henry Fonda; That Girl from Paris (1936) co-starring Jack Oakie and MacDonald's husband Gene Raymond; and Hitting a New High (1937) with Oakie again and John Howard -- she quietly retired from the screen. Lily would be seen once more, in a special guest cameo, with the dramatic musical Carnegie Hall (1947) in which she sang the "The Bell Song" from her signature opera "Lakme." Other classical vocalist cameos included Ezio Pinza, Jan Peerce and Risë Stevens.

In 1938, Lily married Russian-American conductor Andre Kostelanetz and a beautiful collaboration began. For over three decades, they would appear together in concert. During this time, she became one of the highest paid performers in history and recorded for RCA Records. Although the couple divorced in 1958, they continued a professional relationship, appearing together from time to time.

Unlike film, radio was a different matter and Lily remained an enduring favorite. In addition, she entertained troops once again, this time during WWII, touring battlefields in North Africa and Asia. In the 1950's, she made several singing/speaking appearances on TV variety shows, including "The Bob Hope Show," "The Ed Sullivan Show," "The Colgate Comedy Show," "The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show," "All-Star Revue," "The Eddie Fisher Show" and "Kraft Music Hall." She would also be featured on "Person to Person" with Edward R. Murrow and honored on "This Is Your Life."

Lily took her final opera curtain hall as Lucia di Lammermoor opposite young, rising Plácido Domingo's Edgardo in 1962. She continued sporadically in concert until 1972, and died of pancreatic cancer four years later on February 13, 1976, at age 77. She was buried in a family grave in Cannes.

Jessye Norman was born on 15 September 1945 in Augusta, Georgia, USA. She was an actress, known for Wild at Heart (1990), The Hours (2002) and Choke (2008). She died on 30 September 2019 in New York City, New York, USA.

Kathleen Battle was born on August 13, 1948 in Portsmouth, Ohio, USA. She was the youngest of seven children in the African-American family, with a good tradition of singing spirituals. She graduated from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music in Ohio (1971) and taught music to Cincinnati's inner-city youth, while continuing her vocal studies privately. In 1972 she was hired by then conductor or the Cincinnati Symphony, Thomas Schippers, to perform at the 1972 Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy.

Being blessed with the silky, silvery timbre of her lyric coloratura soprano, and the talent that has little limitations, she made performances and recordings in a variety of styles and genres, including classical sacred music, spirituals and traditional jazz. Battle performed leading parts at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, in the operas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Richard Strauss, and Gaetano Donizetti. She also worked with conductor James Levine, as well as with jazz musicians such as Cyrus Chestnut, James Carter, Grover Washington Jr., and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. Her performances with tenors Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo, and conductors Herbert von Karajan, Claudio Abbado, Seiji Ozawa, André Previn, Georg Solti, Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Muti are documented on video and sound recordings.

Battle is arguably the only lyric soprano with the ability to bridge the gap between the European bel canto opera and the African-American tradition of vocal improvisation. Her recordings of classical sacred arias by Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joaquino Rossini, and 'Gabriel Faure', as well as her recordings of spirituals, lullabies and folksongs in a jazz setting, are among the finest examples of her cross-cultural works.

She was a five-time Grammy award winner, and won an Emmy Award in 1991. She received the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Performance in a New Opera Production for her debut performance at the Covent Garden Royal Opera House, London. Battle is the recipient of several honorary doctorates from universities. She was indicted in the NAACP Image Hall Of Fame in 1999.

Renata Tebaldi was and is surely one of the best Spinto soprano voices that any century has ever heard. She made her operatic debut, through bombed streets in 1944 in Mefistofele, as Elena. Then was hand picked for the reopening of La Scala, 46 by Toscanini. It was there that the legendary "Voice of an Angel" started. He put Tebaldi upon a podium, well above the choir, and said "I want your voice to sound as though an angel is coming from Heaven." That is how it all started.

Her career began to grow at the same time as Maria Callas, though, actually, if one delves into their respective careers, they were so different, performing only three or four roles at the same time. In 1950 Tebaldi was selected by both esteemed conductors, Toscanini and De Sabata, for their versions of the Verdi Requium. These recordings exist today, and one can see how her vocal splendor was soon to become an international phenomenon. Her operatic debut in the United States, was AIDA in '50 in SF. She was booked just opon hearing a few of her recordings.

Tebaldi was so lucky, as she began her career just as the recording industry was beginning to record complete operas on LP. Decca/London quickly signed this promising new talent, and she continued to record for the label until 1974. She often recorded her repertoire twice, one in mono, then in Stereo, as her vocal and dramatic prowess only increased with time. Her legendary Decca recordings are mostly still in print, Aida, La Boheme, Madama Butterfly, La Fanciulla del West, Otello (in which she was unsurpassed as Desdemona), Andrea Chenier, Adrianna, La Wally, La Gioconda, Manon Lescaut, and Tosca. These are all available, on many labels, as live recordings as well.

Tebaldi's operatic career took one's breath away, just looking at the theatres she performed in, The Met, War Memorial, Covent Garden, San Carlos, Paris, Russia, Chicago Lyric, to name only a very few.

Her complete operas on video only give testament to her greatness, her absolutely gorgeous voice. Tosca '61 Stuttgart is now on DVD, along with her Andrea Chenier, with the wonderful and her recording partner, Mario del Monaco, Japan '61, Forza del Destino '58 with Corelli and Bastianini is also on DVD.

Her voice has been praised by Beverly Sills, Martina Arroyo, Joan Sutherland, and the great Caballe, who saw her as a youngster, and wanted to be like her. Also the many tenors who worked with her, Del Monaco, Di Stefano, Bjorling, Morell, and Richard Tucker, always praised her in every way possible. So did Franco Corelli, whom, both tall and good-looking, often left audiences spellbound, with their looks and singing.

To this day, she still is in great health, and loves to hear from her fans. She does consider them as family, as she feels she sacrificed a family for a career, way before it was acceptable for a woman to do so. But her fan base only grows. All you have to do is put on just one track of a Tebaldi CD, or record, to know why.

Edda Moser was born on 27 October 1938 in Berlin, Germany. She is an actress, known for Don Giovanni (1979), Das Rheingold (1978) and Die Zauberflöte (1982).

Nellie Melba was born on 19 May 1861 in Richmond, Victoria, Australia. She was married to Charles Frederick Nisbett Armstrong. She died on 23 February 1931 in Darlinghurst, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Kiri Te Kanawa studied voice in New Zealand, where she was a popular singer as a teenager. She enrolled in the London Opera Center in 1966, and had her Covent Garden debut 1 December 1971. Although her acting ability is highly regarded on the operatic stage, she has made few theatrical films.

Renata Scotto was born on 24 February 1934 in Savona, Liguria, Italy. She was an actress, known for La Gioconda (1979), Great Performances at the Met (1977) and The January Man (1989). She was married to Lorenzo Anselmi. She died on 16 August 2023 in Savona, Liguria, Italy.

Lucia Popp was born on 12 November 1939 in Uhorska Ves, Slovakia. She was an actress, known for Bicentennial Man (1999), Philadelphia (1993) and The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000). She was married to Peter Seiffert and Gyorgy Fischer. She died on 15 November 1993 in Munich, Bavaria, Germany.