Famous Opera Singers of Today

Norm Lewis? 😂

Norm Lewis isn't an opera singer. Mario Lanza sang popularized opera in the moves, had a fantastic voice, died too young, but probably appeared in only 2 or so productions of opera live before hitting it big (for less than 10 years) in Hollywood before dying.

There aren't really any big opera names the general public knows because variety shows don't exist on tv and very rarely do late night talk shows feature opera singers the way that Johnny Carson did years ago sometimes. Jonas Kaufmann (a big name tenor singing heavy repertoire but mostly unknown to the general public), Renee Fleming (still performing, but on the twilight to retiring), Anna Netrebko (now cancelled mostly because she's a close friend of Putin, but that connected helped her get tons of opera work for years before he started the current war), are some of the bigger names. There are also some enjoyable people like Joyce DiDonato, and I think the great Dolora Zajick still sings.

Emphata Tabini is probably the current biggest name in opera.

Leontyne Price was indeed a huge star when she sang, but she's been retired many years. She did show up in a recently documentary about the Metropolitan "The Opera House" a few years ago, and was able to still sound lovely while singing bits of arias while recounting her time at the Met (and her inability to not keep looking at her gorgeous tenor co-star Franco Corelli back in the day).

Patricia Racette

[quote] Who are opera signers to look out for today? Rene Fleming? She is not performing much.

She passed away 2 years ago.

I have no idea how famous he is in opera land, but a friend of a friend was a well known opera singer who got arrested with his husband for date raping a series of young men. David something. He was teaching at the U of Michigan and lost his job.

That's Rhonda Fleming, not Renee. Why not summon Peggy Fleming too? Or as Sally Bowles might spelling it Phlegming.

You can't be talking about this guy, R7. He's a huge opera star.

That's the counter-tenor David Daniels, R7. there was a thread about him here at the time. Not sure what happened - I don't think the trial has happened yet.

In the mid to late 20th century, there was a lot of public awareness of high culture. Radio and tv felt a sort of responsibility to promote high culture to the general audience - theater, opera, classical music generally, ballet, so you would get stars from those worlds on chat shows, performing in variety type shows and so on. People like Nureyev and Fonteyn, Price and Sutherland, Pavarotti and Domingo, Bernstein and Previn were pretty familiar, almost household names. Nowadays culture is highly fragmented and the various high arts stay in their niches - even branches of popular music are quite separate from each other. There isn't crossover in the same way as even at the time of Renee Fleming's peak.

R10 Is that why Diana Ross has a Christmas album with Placido Domingo?

She's moved onto to the concert stage but Diana Damrau remains amazing and important. Cecilia Bartoli is a gorgeous mezzo soprano too. Getting up there at 56 years old.

Natalie Dessay says that Opera quit her, but she was a gorgeous light soprano until vocal surgeries messed with her abilities.

Kathleen Battle is still out there - singing spirituals.

Great sopranos of today.....some have been around a few decades.

Absolutely, and the great Monserrat Caballe/Freddie Mercury duet at the Barcelona Olympics, but nowadays we're not going to get an album of Lise Davidsen and Harry Styles or Jonas Kaufmann and Taylor Swift duetting.

Franco Corelli really would have been even more well-known than Pavarotti and Domingo had his heyday been in the video age, because not only did he sing like a god, he was drop-dead gorgeous!

Sorry - I'd post a photo, but site wasn't allowing me to post it for some reason of Franco. Maybe someone else can? Don't deny us Franco's beauty!

Franco

Was Cathy Malfitano famous?

As one of the naked Salomes, she was kind of infamous.

No one in the current generation of singers has captured my attention EXCEPT: Sandra Radvanovsky, Christine Goerke, and Lise Davidsen

Watching them live is completely different from hearing them on records--so Op, if you get the chance, try to see them in a prominent theatre. Assuming you're in the US, NY, SF, Seattle, Chicago, DC, Houston--all host great opera companies.

Lisette Oropesa is a wonderful coloratura. There's a video of her in concert singing "Sempre libera" in concert where a voice student in the audience takes it upon himself to sing the lines of the tenor (which in opera performance are sung off-stage) which are usually omitted in a concert performance. Ms. Oropesa is surprised, but gamely goes along with it. She also was superb accompanying herself on the piano doing an aria from "Daughter of the Regiment" during an early pandemic Met Opera remote performance.

r12, Natalie Dessay was the one who made me understand The Queen of the Night - from the comments: "Oh gosh. Daimaru’s version is all anger, wrath and menace, which is great and certainly one way to do it. Dessay’s is more despair and a descent into hysterical madness, which is also great. Top marks to both." - Dairmaru a great theatrical showstopper, but Dessay gives a more real performance.

effortless

[quote] Lisette Oropesa is a wonderful coloratura.

There's also a wonderful video of her singing the second verse of Adio Del Passato, also from Traviata. The comments say it's an encore because people went wild over the gorgeously done first verse. Actually, most productions cut the second verse but this one kept it

I loved Dessay but sadly she decided to retire a while ago--she was still pretty young for a retiring opera singer

Dmitri Hvorostovsky was hot

Great thread, OP.

Her voice had greatly deteriorated by then, R26.

[quote] Assuming you're in the US, NY, SF, Seattle, Chicago, DC, Houston--all host great opera companies.

Why would you leave out cities like Santa Fe and Dallas? Their operas are far superior than Seattle and Houston.

I love Anita Rachvelishvili's voice.

R30 Houston has a great opera

Not an opera maven, per se, but I've enjoyed Piotr Beczala in performance, even in ludicrously staged nonsense.

R31 Agree, she is fantastic!

Joseph Calleja sounds beautiful, along the lines of Beniamino Gigli.

It’s a quickly dying artform sadly.

The average age of the audience must be 65

^^So is Datalounge's.

Opera is very artificial in every way. The stories, staging, costumes and PLOTS. Mostly importantly - it is of course an artificial way to sing. YES, it is. There are performances and recordings that will never die.

I'd rather see the art form die than watch it dumbed down and popularized. It won't work. There's a reason why opera singers make ridiculous pop singers.

And no, Aretha could not sing opera. Ha.

R36 idk, a lot of Europeans and Asians are supporters and fans of opera

r38, you should read Conrad L. Osborne's excellent book (and polemic), OPERA AS OPERA--if you can find it and lift it! It's huge!! But I think you'd appreciate him immensely.

Thanks R40. I am going to look for it. I like the title. Opera as Opera. (seems you understood my post) I appreciate the suggestion R40. How huge? I am not sure I will make it through....we'll see. 🙃

Bump

Is this common practice? An immediate encore of a song, in the context of an opera (as opposed to a concert/recital)?