Lucia Popp
Popp was an accomplished coloratura soprano in the early years of her career, but later as her voice changed color slightly, she moved with great success into the lyric repertoire, and still later, into the lighter Strauss and Wagner operas. She had the ideal voice and personality for Viennese operetta, and was one of the best Rosalindes and Hanna Glawaris of her time. She was also a celebrated recitalist and lieder singer, and in both recitals and on the opera stage had a charming stage presence. Her untimely death in 1993 (the same year that saw the early deaths of Arleen Auger and Tatiana Troyanos) prematurely ended a major career.
When she was a child, while she sang in local choirs, her primary interest was acting, and after high school, not being certain of what she wanted for a career, she entered the Bratislava Academy to study drama. Anna Hrusovska-Prosenkova, a voice teacher at the Academy, happened to hear her singing during a performance of Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, and offered her voice lessons. She began her studies as a mezzo, but as she described it, her voice suddenly developed a high upper register, and when she graduated she began her professional career as a soprano. In 1963 she made her stage debut at the Bratislava Opera as the Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflaute, and also debuted at the Vienna Theater an der Wien, which led to her being engaged by the Vienna State Opera, where her first role was Barbarina in Le Nozze di Figaro. She had strong ties to the Vienna State Opera during her career, though she left their regular roster in 1967, and in 1979, she was named an Austrian Kammersangerin. She made her Covent Garden debut in 1966 as Oscar in Un Ballo in Maschera, and her Met debut in 1967 as the Queen of the Night.
During the 1970s, she left coloratura roles for lyric ones, particularly Mozart, where she was an especially effective Pamina and Susanna, and in the 1980s, abandoning those roles, as well as Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier, another of her specialties, she began to add even heavier roles, including Eva in Die Meistersinger and Strauss' Arabella (both in 1983), with similar success. She died unexpectedly in 1993.
On Acanta (43 326), she recorded a number of arias from both her core Mozart and Czechoslovakian repertoire as well as from operas she sang far more rarely. Her recording of operetta arias on EMI (CDR 7243 5 69853 2 2) displays her silvery voice and charm to great advantage, and she is a vivid Susanna on the Solti "dream cast" for Le Nozze di Figaro on London (410 150-2).
© Ann Feeney /TiVo
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Mozart: Die Zauberflöte
Otto Klemperer, Lucia Popp, Gundula Janowitz, Nicolai Gedda, Philharmonia Orchestra
Clásica - Editado por Warner Classics el 01-01-1964
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Fauré: Requiem
Lucia Popp, Simon Estes, Rundfunkchor Leipzig, Staatskapelle Dresden, Sir Colin Davis
Clásica - Editado por Decca Music Group Ltd. el 01-01-1985
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schubert: Deustche Messe
Wolfgang Sawallisch, Lucia Popp, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Sinfonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks
Clásica - Editado por Warner Classics el 01-07-1986
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Humperdinck: Hansel und Gretel
Lucia Popp, Brigitte Fassbaender, Walter Berry, Wiener Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Georg Solti
Clásica - Editado por Decca Music Group Ltd. el 01-01-1978
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schubert Masses
Wolfgang Sawallisch, Symphonieorchester Des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Lucia Popp, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Peter Schreier
Clásica - Editado por Warner Classics el 01-01-1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Lehár: Der Graf von Luxemburg
Lucia Popp, Nicolai Gedda, Symphonie-Orchester Graunke, Willy Mattes
Clásica - Editado por Warner Classics el 24-04-2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Very Best of Lucia Popp
Clásica - Editado por Warner Classics el 04-08-2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Great Moments of Lucia Popp
Clásica - Editado por Warner Classics el 23-10-1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Wagner: Tannhäuser
Bernard Haitink, Klaus Konig, Lucia Popp, Symphonieorchester Des Bayerischen Rundfunks
Clásica - Editado por Warner Classics el 01-01-1985
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Queen of Night, Maiden of Light
Clásica - Editado por Warner Classics el 07-09-2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Janácek: The Cunning Little Vixen
Lucia Popp, Dalibor Jedlicka, Wiener Philharmonic Orchestra, Charles Mackerras
Clásica - Editado por Decca Music Group Ltd. el 01-01-1982
Discoteca Ideal Qobuz16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: The Symphonies
Clásica - Editado por Decca Music Group Ltd. el 01-01-1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart Opera Festival
Clásica - Editado por Decca Music Group Ltd. el 01-01-2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
J. Strauss II: Die Fledermaus
Lucia Popp, Agnes Baltsa, Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Plácido Domingo
Clásica - Editado por Warner Classics el 15-10-1986
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Great Singers Live: Lucia Popp
Lucia Popp, Munich Radio Orchestra
Clásica - Editado por BR-Klassik el 29-09-2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven, Mozart, Nicolai, Puccini & Strauss: Opera Arias
Lucia Popp, Bayerisches Staatsorchester , Carlos Kleiber, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Karl Böhm
Ópera - Editado por Orfeo el 01-01-2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms : Ein deutsches Requiem
Lucia Popp, Wolfgang Brendel, Prague Philharmonic Choir, Czech Philharmonic, Giuseppe Sinopoli
Clásica - Editado por Decca Music Group Ltd. el 01-01-1983
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Puccini: La Bohème
Clásica - Editado por Warner Classics el 01-01-1987
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Die schönsten deutschen Kinder- und Wiegenlieder
Clásica - Editado por Orfeo el 01-01-2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Lucia Popp Irwin Gage Lieder
Clásica - Editado por Orfeo el 28-05-2010
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Ernst Krenek: Jonny Spielt Auf, Op. 45 (excerpts)
Lucia Popp, Evelyn Lear, Thomas Stewart, Vienna State Opera Orchestra
Integrales de ópera - Editado por Vanguard Classics el 04-01-1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo