Best Sopranos Ever Lived

[JoshLilly]

I looked and looked, and didn't see Nancy Argenta. I'm guessing something got broken while posting the list.

[Mark]

C'mon, be honest. How many of you simply voted for names you recognised?

[Peregrine]

C'mon, be honest. How many of you simply voted for names you recognised?

Don't judge me by your own standards!

[Mark]

Don't judge me by your own standards!

Well, okay: three of my ten votes were cast in that way.

[Harry]

Sorry, Harry. I certainly didn't mean to offend. I'd somehow got the impression that you were totally allergic to anything but the totally vibratoless voices of such as Kirkby, who, it has to be admitted, produces a very white sound, which is not to my taste, though I quite appreciate many love it. However even I  don't like vibrato when it becomes intrusive. I find the vibrations in the voice of say Michelle De Young on Davis's 2nd Les Troyens altogether too, well vibrant, though I quite accept that they may be exaggerated by the microphone. On the other hand, the fast, natural vibrato of a tenor like Joseph Calleja I find very atractive.

Incidentally, do you also object to the use of vibrato in string playing? I ask because this was something of an ongoing debate in The Gramophone for a while. I have always thought of it as part of a string player's armoury, a device that good string players would use altogether more chastely in early music than they would in the Romantic repertoire. I'm sure I read somewhere that vibrato was a device that both singers and instrumentalists would use to help them project over a larger orchestra and into larger halls, which is why it started to be used more in the nineteenth century onwards.

I knew that you were not offending me, and of course I understand your reaction to my on going battle against added vibrato in the voice, so no hard feelings.
I have  lot of HIP recordings, and vibrato applied with care, may add to the pleasure on listening to instrumental music, but often enough, I noticed a feeling in myself of not really accepting what is done, so as a rule I like my strings without vibrato.

[Montpellier]

I couldn't see any of the best who have lived.   No coloraturas?  No Beverly Sills?  No Katia Ricciarelli?   No Cinzia Forte?  No Tetrazzini? 

Oh dear....

[FideLeo]

I looked and looked, and didn't see Nancy Argenta. I'm guessing something got broken while posting the list.

Here's a picture of Nancy.  I do prefer her voice to that of both Emma Kirkby and Suzie LeBlanc in the category.

[Marc]

Question: Who is/are the best soprano(s) who has/have ever lived?

Nancy Storage.

[Tsaraslondon]

Question: Who is/are the best soprano(s) who has/have ever lived?

Nancy Storage.

Who? Or did you mean Nancy Storace?

[marvinbrown]

Dear all,

I've listed 30 names of world-renowned sopranos that ever lived, please list for me from the best to the least. If you any other best sopranos, please list down for me. Thank you so much.

Sincerely,
Joseph

  What? No Kirsten Flagstad .  She sang what I consider to be one of the toughest soprano roles of them all:  Isolde in Wagner's  0:) Tristan und Isolde.  she set the bar so high for that role I have yet to hear an Isolde that can trump that of Flagstad's.  Oh God what I would have given to see and hear her sing that role live....sadly she's old enough to be my grandmother. 

  marvin

[zamyrabyrd]

I'm afraid I will never understand your obsession with vibrato, or the lack of it, Harry. Vibrato is the very life blood of a voice. Of course, many singers use it for expression. Schwarzkopf, for instance could vary hers depending on the music, and often sang totally without, if that is what the expression required. I find vibratoless voices, of the Kirkby variety, monochrome, dull, sexless and boring, and I am so pleased to see that many HIP singers now also use vibrato as a means of expression. Vibrato, of course, should not be confused with wobble or unsteadiness. This is what happens when vibrato cannot be controlled and may be what you are allergic to.

I concur about Kirkby. Taking the vibrato out of the voice makes for monochrome indeed (although I don't think this can be done completely). The "vibrato" of a healthy free voice has a slight oscillation of pitch as with string players. Higher voices are quicker, about 7cps and lower voices around 6.5, if memory serves me right. Anything below and larger oscillations (wobble) or above that (tremolo) are usually perceived as unpleasant. Leopold Mozart used the natural vibrato of the voice "as suggested by nature" as the example for vibrato in violin playing.

ZB

[Marc]

Who? Or did you mean Nancy Storace?

Well, according to some scabrous books, she sold Mozart her whole storage, so she must have been good.

[Xenophanes]

Dear all,

I've listed 30 names of world-renowned sopranos that ever lived, please list for me from the best to the least. If you any other best sopranos, please list down for me. Thank you so much.

Sincerely,
Joseph

That's quite a list of good sopranos. Still, as some have mentioned, there are some names missing.  Here are some I would include:

Licia Albanese (my favorite lyric soprano)
Birgit Nilsson
Frida Leider (only have one track but her ho-jo-to ho was awe inspiring)
Zinka Milanov
Kirsten Flagstad (already mentioned)
Helen Traubel
Bidu Sayao
Amelita Galli-Curci
Lily Pons
Roberta Peters
Wendy Nielsen
Sally Dibblee
Renee Fleming
Pierrette Alarie
Nellie Melba

Measha Brueggergosman (well, an up-and-comer)

[Lilas Pastia]

Good list, Xeno - although I suppose Roberta Peters stands for that list's "Harry Peters"  - unless he meant Harriett Potter?

[Salome]

Kirsten Flagtad is an absolute must, as a nominee at least.
Another notable absentee is Montserrat Caballe.
Has Renata Scotto been mentioned yet ?

[Sarastro]

It's pretty surprising to see here Lucia Popp sharing the first place with Callas!  She's my beloved soprano, with crystalline pure maiden's voice, she with her Queen of the Night did my opera enrollment and I consider her rendition of that role to be the best. Though somebody can say her timber doesn't fit the Queen. And also I can say that her Gilda or Oscar inspire me, her element is Mozart, Strauss etc. Still...I love her.

[Sarastro]

Where is Nilsson?  Jones?