Incredible soprano voices of the 20th century 

Trifling people like to argue into the ether.

Do don't read, listen.

it's because most commercial recordings of her were made in later years when her voice had taken a sharp turn for the worst. I have to admit, this clip is the first time I've heard her that I can stand to listen to.

And I don't know how she would even get mentioned here. A lovely but very light voice that had little live impact in big venues.

Of course not. This is not one of her best clips. Some of Maria's work is really great. I love her singing with Alfredo Kraus. There are so many great sopranos...

Viva Tibaldi....and, I seldom hear anything about

Thank you for mentioning Alda. This board is fixated on the great sopranos of the 60's and 70's. There were many great sopranos in the last century. Curiously to me it is odd that Jessye Norman doesn't get mentioned here; I really think she was the greatest of the 80's and 90's but not one of the top 5 of the century.

William maddox I have a friend, an avid opera-goer and knowledgeable fan who truly believes that Ponselle was no soprano but a contralto with a high top. What do you think?

azyuwish99 That been discussed for a long time (same with Callas and Jessye Norman). On stage Ponselle sang high D flats; there is a sound check for a 1939 radio broadcast where sings a high E flat (above high C) and sings a descending scale down 3 octaves to the E flat below middle C. I believe since she was so young at her debut, she was actually a soprano in 1918 but by the time she left opera in 1937, she was becoming a mezzo. I think she could have continued singing low soprano roles (Salome, Isolde, Santuzza, Kundry); Les Troyens wasn't being stage then but what a Didion and Cassandre she would have been.

+Trudy Kretschmer Another point - Unless you heard all of these women live in their primes (obviously pretty much impossible), it's really hard to compare. From all contemporary reports both Flagstad and Ponselle were incredible. I have only heard one incredible voice live and that was Sutherland. Your mentioning Alda is a good point - there were dozens of great sopranos in the 20Th century.

Sigue siendo el talon alquiles de las sopranos. Callas la mejor de toda la historia y dudo mucho que la superen porque hoy en dia hay mucha mediocridad no solo en la opera, sino en el canto general.

Neither one (they were both very good) were not top 10.

William maddox Who in your opinion would be befitting of inclusion then?

jmiller05 I mentioned before -Elisabeth Rethberg - more ravishing than either one of them and could do anything they could do. Frida Lieder due to the beauty and warmth of her voice IMO next to Flagstad the second best Wagnerian of the century. Zinka Milanov and Martina Arroyo - Their equal in beauty but larger than Price and Caballe and more agile than Price. Emmy Destinn next to Ponselle the greatest Verdian soprano of the century and good in Wagner as well. Rosa Raisa the first Turandot and nearly the equal of Ponselle.

Price and Caballe are surely missing, but I can't help but include Astrid Varnay and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf here.

Yes, IMO the greatest Wagnerian singer and lyric soprano ever respectively.

Caballe, Price, de Los Angeles, Sills, and Moser were among the best singers of the 1960's'but not of the century, It was a great generation of sopranos; one could easily make an argument for it being the best - but there were many great sopranos in the 20th century and they are not at the very top ( but they are near it).

What's your top 10? Everyone have their own choices. And everyone's opinion counts.

diana ventura I mentioned some on this thread before - Rethberg, Lieder, Raisa, Tettrazini, Melba, Destinn etc. but even from the generation of 1970's Margaret Price

Why are you getting attacking me personally? I can assure you I am not a drag queen lol. Having said that, gays and drag queens are equal to everyone in God's creations. I am RARELY confrontational, but you can be very rude, I can't let you get away with your delirious mindset. I Admit...Callas(whom I love) was the greatest operatic singing actress of all time. BUT, Sutherland is superior to her in vocal opulence and technique and had THREE times the longevity at the top as Prima Donna Assoluta. Therefore, if we add 1+1, we get 2, Sutherland is better than Callas. But that does not mean Callas is not GREAT. I just prefer Sutherland. Can you accept that the opera lovers have different opinions? I ADORE Callas, she's is my SECOND favorite singer...your hatred of Sutherland does not make a valid case to convince average opera lovers to hate Sutherland and love Callas. Your opinion is as valid as anyone's, just don't go so over the top which makes you look like a fool. Sutherland is NOT La Stupidita. She is La Stupenda. Your remarks will make a lot of opera lovers angry, even if they are not a fan of Sutherland's. I don't know you, but you seem to be too biased. And from your posts, you seem to have a lot of hatred. I'm about to put you on ignore. But I guess the new YT only allows ignores to be done one at a time. So do I have listen to your hateful remarks every time I log on? Perhaps not. I was told in my preferences, I can delete you for good. I really don't like to block anyone. I believe in free speech. But do you really hate Sutherland so much? And why? If you lighten your tone, your message may be better absorbed by the opera fans on youtube. Best regards.

diana ventura 1. Sutherland had to completely sacrifice her Diction and she left her middle voice atrophic and went wobbly as early in 1972 plus she never developed a low voice in order to support her big sound in the top 5 notes that you admire so much and call technique... leaving half of the notes unsung or even transposing them upwards in order to sing them is not called vocal technique it is called Vocal Trick... the truth is that Sutherland had one of the worst vocal techniques :D, It is your lack of Musical Knowledge that does not allow you to understand how those roles were supposed to be sung because like all Sutherland fans all you cared about was the final Eb6, There is something called Score you know :D Sutherland was rarely fidel to the score ! :) 2. Sutherland never sang the Assoluta repertoire.. I know you think that Assoluta means the Only One but if you read a bit Assoluta is the soprano who sings the Assoluta Repertoire from which Sutherland sang only two roles Norma (where she was never a true success) and Bolena where she was a total disaster, 3. Sutherland's Voice considering the roles she sang (all the same vocal type) and the age she began singing serious roles (33 Lucia) was rather short in duration compared to Callas' that lasted 20 years of singing the heaviest dramatic repertoire :D It is like saying that Bach was better than Mozart because Mozart died aged 33 :DD Sutherland began singing serious roles in 1959 and 13 years later in 1972 she developed an unbelievable middle Voice wobble :DD and that by singing around 2 roles every year :DDD Plus, and that's the ultimate proof of her Lack of Technique, the woman never managed to sing the Epitome of Coloratura Soprano Costanze from Mozart's Serail.. she was studying it with Bonynge for 3 whole years and decided she couldnt do it :DDDD Callas by the way had sung the complete Costanze in La Scala in 1952 :DD Finally, when you call someone's weakness is hatred? No it is simply the truth and I speak with facts.. You speak with generalized stupidities that you read in the net... just because in those ridiculous forums you keep saying again and again the same lies about Sutherland (that she is Assoluta, the woman never even attempted the Assoluta repertoire or that she had a low voice lol) that doesnt mean anyone else actually believes what you say :DDD The worst part about you people is that you keep saying the same shit all over again, having persuaded yourselves it is the truth :DD Just because you happen to like Joan Sutherland that doesnt mean she was the best... she was far down from it :D

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Battle 🤮

In December of 1938 Callas turned 15, She was not performing professionally at that time.

Then it was 1939, but she began to perform while she was still studying at the Athens Conservatory.

infrantasi Anyone who becomes a professional singer and goes to a minor conservatory, wiil be performing while a .student

William maddox Anyone in a minor conservatoir will be performing as a student in the Ancient Theatre of Herodous Atticous before thousands of people in the central leading role of Leonora or Tosca in a major production of the National Theatre ?:DDD LOLEX dude, use your mind before writing stupidities :D And even if that was the case, we all know that Callas was singing in full Voice even in rehearsals.. can u imagine how she sang this Leonora at the age of 18? :DDD Sutherland kept her voice till she was 60 because she began singing leading roles at the age of 35 :D - ultra-late starter... by the time she was 35 Callas had finished her career which started at the age of 15 in the most difficult and heaviest dramatic leading roles (Which Joan wouldnt dream of singing)

You tell 'em, LohengrinTh. And for that matter, when she was still in New York, she sang "Un bel di" for Jack Benny on the Major Bowes Radio Program under the name "Nina Foresti". That was at the ripe old age of 11. And while gathered around the radio listening to the Saturday Met Opera broadcast one day, with Lily Pons butchering "Lucia's Mad Scene" Callas turned to her mother and said "She's completely off pitch!" The kid was going places, let's face it.

Lol, that Lohengrin's character is something, right? I've never read anyone so obsessed with Callas before. And I think Callas was one of the greatest. But she was not greater than Sutherland. When you get to the best of the best, they're all the greatest.

@@annettefallon1652 finally someone with sense. I adore La Callas, but even she liked other singers. She had her faults just like any other singer. She also never spoke badly of any of her “colleagues”! She did praise quite few though. All of the singers in this video were paragons of the art form and have nothing to feel ashamed of. Lohengrin is the worst, rudest, derisive, divisive, bigoted, racist, pseudo-intellectual that has ever walked the earth. Callas would try to stay as far from him as she could if she were alive. He’s a nut. And if you disagree with him then “your stupid and should be Burned alive”. He is also the king of circular reasoning. Calls Sutherland a retard one minute and when someone calls him out on it acts like he was giving a compliment and that You are the one that had the problem as “there’s nothing wrong with being retard”. He has denigrated god knows how many singers and artists all the while he’s tone deaf and can’t read music. Literally. 🙄😒

Medea, Armida, Nabucco, Lady Macbeth?

Sadly even great Birgit Nillson said "Callas in her best day was better than all of us put together". Ponselle said " Callas's voice doesn't have limit"

​@@awokwok1029where does ponselle say this

Yeah like the listeners of BBC are the bible on great voices - not. Callas was a great opera singer but very far from the greatest voice.

No ! I my opinion : 1 : Callas ,2 : Ponselle , 3 Sutherland ,4 : Flagstaff . 5 : Nilsson.

+David Perkins Actually you summarize Leontyne as a singer very well. I really don't think she had seamless registers but the rest of your description is spot on. What I think keeps her out of the top 5 is her relative lack of agility and her voice really wasn't huge. She was a unique singer.

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😂😂😂 Aria is from Turandot...

This is her forte. She had the freest, easiest, big high notes

+hermajesty52 I can see Muzio as a possibility for this list but Lotte Lehmann. Lehmann was a great artist, probably close to being in Callas' league; she was an incredible Sieglinde.

+William maddox I meant "but not Lotte Lehmann" - she had some weaknesses and limitations