#opera singers

View of soprano Leontyne Price in Puccini's opera, "Tosca." Stamped on back: "NBC photo." Handwritten on back: "Miss Price in Act II."

Opera singers William Warfield and Leontyne Price, who were then starring in a production of Porgy and Bess, were married at the Abyssinian Baptist Church on August 3, 1952. Performing the ceremony is the Rev. David Nathaniel Licorish, with the attendants, William Holmes, Jr, left, and Urylee Leonardos, right, watching. The entire company came up from Washington, D.C., where the production was in its pre-Broadway tryouts, to attend the ceremony.

Opera singer Gladys Swarthout was born in 1904 in Deepwater, Missouri. Swarthout made her operatic debut during the 1924-25 season with the Chicago Civic Opera Company. In 1929, she gave her debut with the Metropolitan Opera, where she would remain for sixteen seasons. Swarthout's repertoire contained more than 25 operas, but she was best known for the title role in Carmen. In 1960, she was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

There are a bunch of old recordings of sopranos trained in the old-school bel canto technique. I’ll link just a few of them, but I’ll try to show you different types of sopranos. If you want more, you’ll need to dig deeper into YouTube (there are entire channels dedicated to this!).

Adelina Patti – Casta Diva (Patti was 63 when she recorded it!)

Luisa Tetrazzini – Caro nome

Frieda Hempel – Der Hölle Rache

Eugenia Burzio – Suicidio

Marcella Sembrich-Kochańska – Ah, fors’è lui…Sempre libera

Nellie Melba – Jewel song

Amelita Galli-Curci - Un bel di vedremo