The Magnificent Seven

[Schigolch]

Which are our favourites singers for each fach?.

Here we can select seven of them, the Magnificent Seven. Remember, we are asking for our favourites, not trying to select the best ones... if this would be indeed a feasible task.

Those are mine:

Sopranos: Rosa Ponselle, Claudia Muzio, Maria Callas, Renata Tebaldi, Joan Sutherland, Magda Olivero, Kirsten Flagstad

Mezzo/Altos: Kathleen Ferrier, Giulietta Simionato, Waltraud Meier, Marilyn Horne, Ebe Stignani, Shirley Verrett, Lucia Valentini Terrani

Tenors: Enrico Caruso, Jussi Björling, Sergei Lemeshev, Beniamino Gigli, Alfredo Kraus, Lauritz Melchior, Luciano Pavarotti

Baritones: Riccardo Stracciari, Mattia Battistini, Pavel Lisitsian, Leonard Warren, Giuseppe de Luca, Heinrich Schlusnus, Giuseppe Taddei

Bass: Alexander Kipnis, Ezio Pinza, Nazzareno de Angelis, Mark Reizen, Tancredi Pasero, Samuel Ramey, Cesare Siepi

Countertenors: Philippe Jaroussky, David Daniels, Alfred Deller, Bejun Mehta, Iestyn Davies, Russel Oberlin, Brian Asawa

[Soave_Fanciulla]

Sopranos: Emma Kirkby, Ileana Cotrubas, Kathleen Battle, Lucia Popp, Maria Bayo, Natalie Dessay, Nancy Argenta


Mezzos: Joyce DiDonato, Sarah Connolly, Frederica von Stade, Cecilia Bartoli, Anna Caterina Antonacci, Tatiana Troyanos, Agnes Baltsa


Contraltos: Ewa Podleś, Mariana Mijanovic, Marie Nicole Lemieux, Sara Mingardo


Tenors: Plácido Domingo, Jonas Kaufmann, Ian Bostridge, Philip Langridge, Klaus Florian Vogt, Joseph Calleja, Tom Randle


Baritones: Simon Keenlyside, Christopher Maltman, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Peter Mattei, Thomas Allen, Mariusz Kwiecień, Nicolas Rivenq


Basses/bass baritones: Luca Pisaroni, Sam Ramey, Matti Salminen, Ruggero Raimondi, René Pape, José van Dam, Ferrucio Furlanetto


Countertenors: Andreas Scholl, Iestyn Davis, Philippe Jaroussky, Max Emanuel Cencic, Bejun Mehta, Tim Mead, Christophe Dumaux

[MAuer]

Sopranos: Sena Jurinac, Camilla Nylund, Anja Harteros, Anna Netrebko, Katia Ricciarelli, Ileana Cotrubas, Diana Damrau

Mezzos: Agnes Baltsa, Joyce di Donato, Waltraud Meier, Teresa Berganza, Susan Graham, Shirley Verrett, Fiorenza Cossotto

Tenors: Jonas Kaufmann, Fritz Wunderlich, Siegfried Jerusalem, José Carreras, Placido Domingo, Werner Krenn, Leopold Simoneau

Baritones: Sherrill Milnes, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Dietrich Henschel, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Anthony Michaels-Moore, Simon Keenlyside, Leo Nucci

Basses/Bass-Baritones: Kurt Moll, Bryn Terfel, Sam Ramey, Franz Crass, Stephen Milling, Karl Ridderbusch, Gwynne Howell

Countertenors: See Tenors ()

[desiree]

Sopranos: Kirsten Flagstad, Renata Tebaldi, Victoria de los Angeles, Wilma Lipp, Joan Sutherland, Ghena Dimitrova, Diana Damrau

Mezzo/Altos: Marilyn Horne, Fiorenza Cossotto, Frederica von Stade, Cecilia Bartoli, Joyce DiDonato, Kathleen Ferrier, Ewa Podles

Tenors: Lauritz Melchior, Jussi Björling, Mario Del Monaco, Franco Corelli, Giuseppe Di Stefano, Luciano Pavarotti, Juan Diego Flórez

Baritones: Tito Gobbi, Robert Merrill, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Piero Cappuccilli, Sherrill Milnes, Simon Keenlyside, Bryn Terfel

Bass: Boris Christoff, Nicolai Ghiaurov, Nicola Ghiuselev, Ruggero Raimondi, Samuel Ramey, Ferruccio Furlanetto, Paata Burchuladze

Countertenors: Andreas Scholl, Philippe Jaroussky, Brian Asawa

[Almaviva]

Sopranos: Anna Netrebko, Anna Netrebko, Anna Netrebko, Anna Netrebko, Anna Netrebko, Anna Netrebko and Kristine Opolais.

No, seriously, I'll think about it and reply for real at some other time.

[Dark_Angel]

Favorite 7 Sopranos

1) Callas
2) Tebaldi
3) Elena Suliotis
4) Anna Moffo
5) Leyla Gencer
6) Anna Netrebko
7) AC Antonacci

Only Callas and Tebaldi get the honor of single name designation
If there can be only one favorite of course it is Callas.....

[Soave_Fanciulla]

Favorite 7 Sopranos

1) Callas
2) Tebaldi
3) Elena Suliotis
4) Anna Moffo
5) Leyla Gencer
6) Anna Netrebko
7) AC Antonacci

Only Callas and Tebaldi get the honor of single name designation
If there can be only one favorite of course it is Callas.....

Come on DA, I made an effort to name some sopranos (even though I tried to sneak a mezzo in but Shigolch put paid to that), you've got to do the other voice types.

[Almaviva]

Come on DA, I made an effort to name some sopranos (even though I tried to sneak a mezzo in but Shigolch put paid to that), you've got to do the other voice types.

Really? Do we need to think of anybody else other than Anna and Kristine?

[rgz]

I'll just do sopranos for now, as it's the easiest one. I'll have to think about other fachs. Roughly in order -

Sopranos:
Natalie Dessay
Maria Callas
Anna Moffo
Birgit Nilsson
Joan Sutherland
Kathleen Battle
Diana Damrau

Wow, much more difficult than I anticipated -- the first three in my list are ahead of the others by quite a bit, but then there are about 10 singers I like equally for the remaining four slots. Singers that could easily be on my list depending on my mood that day: Anna Netrebko, Renata Tebaldi, Theresa Stratas, Patricia Petibon...

[Almaviva]

Sopranos:
Maria Callas
Renata Tebaldi
Anna Moffo
Beverly Sills
Anna Netrebko
Nina Stemme
Renee Fleming

Mezzo/altos
Joyce DiDonato
Elina Garanca
Waltraud Meier
Anna Caterina Antonacci (soprano/mezzo-soprano)
Frederica von Stadt
Cecilia Bartoli
Ewa Podles

Tenors
Jussi Björling
Giuseppe di Stefano
Luciano Pavarotti
Plácido Domingo
Léopold Simoneau
Nicolai Gedda
Jon Vickers

Baritone
Sherrill Milnes
Simon Keenlyside
Peter Mattei
Bryn Terfel (bass/baritone)
Tito Gobbi
Hans Hotter (bass/baritone)
Giuseppe Taddei

Bass
Samuel Ramey
René Pape
Matti Salminen
John Relyea
Yevgeny Nesterenko
Ferruccio Furlanetto
John Tomlinson

Countertenor
Philippe Jaroussky
David Daniels
Andreas Scholl
Bejun Mehta
Brian Asawa

Some of the people above I ranked with voice not being the only criterion, but also based on looks/stage presence/comic or dramatic flair

[tenchi67622]

This list was harder to compile than I thought it would be! SO many favorites, so few spots avail!

Sopranos - Maria Callas, Rosa Ponselle, Joan Sutherland, Elena Souliotis, Carol Vaness, Beverly Sills, Leontyne Price (HM - Leyla Gencer, Renata Scotto, Renee Fleming, Anna Netrebko, Catherine Malfitano, Eleanor Steber, Diana Damrau)

Mezzo-Sopranos/Contraltos - Cecilia Bartoli, Rise Stevens, Marilyn Horne, Shirley Verrett, Tatiana Troyanos, Grace Bumbry, Joyce DiDonato
(HM - Olga Borodina, Jennifer Larmore, Ewa Podles, Vessalina Kasarova, Elina Garanca, Agnes Baltsa, Susan Graham)

Tenors - Joseph Calleja, Juan Diego Florez, Richard Tucker, Franco Corelli, Luciano Pavarotti, Jussi Bjorling, Placido Domingo (HM - Jonas Kaufmann, Roberto Alagna, Nicolai Gedda, Giuseppe Di Stefano, Carlo Bergonzi, Stephen Costello, Jose Carreras)

Bass-Baritones - Lawrence Tibbett, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Bryn Terfel, Thomas Hampson, Robert Merrill, John Releyea, Sherrill Milnes (HM - James Morris, Cornell MacNeil, Ettore Bastianini, Samuel Ramey, Piero Cappuccilli, Tito Gobbi, Jose van Dam)

Countertenors - David Daniels, Brian Asawa, Philippe Jaroussky, Max Emanuel Cenic, Michael Maniaci, Bejun Mehta, Iestyn Davies

[StLukesGuildOhio]

Soprano:

Maria Callas
Kirsten Flagstad
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
Lucia Popp
Renée Fleming
Anna Netrebko
Gundula Janowitz
Rita Streich
Lisa della Casa
Teresa Stratas
Dawn Upshaw
Natalie Dessay
Véronique Gens

(OK... I couldn't limit it to 7... but hell, there's 4 categories for the male singers so it's only fair we pad out the two female categories)


Mezzo/Alto:

Kathleen Ferrier
Cecilia Bartoli
Anne Sofie von Otter
Susan Graham
Joyce DiDonato
Frederica von Stade
Waltraud Meier
Christa Ludwig
Maureen Forrester


Tenor:

Jussi Björling
Fritz Wunderlich
Giuseppe Di Stefano
Franco Corelli
Plácido Domingo
Lauritz Melchior
Wolfgang Windgassen


Baritone:

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Thomas Hampson
Thomas Quasthoff
Erich Kunz
Dmitri Hvorostovsky
Pavel Lisitsian
Gérard Souzay


Bass:

Nicolai Ghiaurov
Samuel Ramey
Boris Christoff
Hans Hotter (bass-baritone)
Cesare Siepi
Ruggero Raimondi
Kurt Moll


Countertenor:

Philippe Jaroussky
Andreas Scholl
Bejun Mehta
Michael Chance
Robin Blaze
Max Emanuel Cenic
David Daniels

[Couchie]

Sopranos:

Montserrat Caballé
Renee Fleming
Gwyneth Jones
Waltraud Meier
Birgit Nilsson
Jessye Norman
Joan Sutherland

I don't care about male singers.

[Anne of Green Gables]

I don't care about male singers.

Nice excuse but we all know that you just don't recall seven names of male singers that you could write anyway.

[Couchie]

Nice excuse but we all know that you just don't recall seven names of male singers that you could write anyway.

Not true at all:

- Andrea Bocelli
- Josh Groban
- Paul Potts
- Pavarotti
- Il Divo
- Guy that used to sing with Kirsten Flagstad
- Girolamo Bacchini