Lucia Popp (12/11/1939
- 16/11/1993)
Although born in Czechoslovakiain
1939, Lucia Popp's name is Austrian.
She has a family lineage across the
boundaries of the old Austro-Hungarian
Empire. Her mother was a singer and
Lucia was musically literate from an
early age. She gave up the study of
medicine to take up acting and singing.
She made her debut as Queen of Night
in Mozart’s Magic Flute at the Bratislava
Opera in 1963. At around the same time
Popp auditioned for the Vienna State
Opera including being heard by Karajan.
She was quickly signed up by the theatre
and by EMI for their recording of The
Magic Flute under Klemperer. Popp quickly
graduated to Salzburg, Covent Garden
(1966 as Oscar in Verdi’s Un Ballo in
Maschera) and the Met in her signature
role of Queen of Night. At this time
her voice was a lyric coloratura, but
characterised by a middle a little higher
up the range than many others in this
fach. This enabled Popp to add more
colour, characterisation and meaning
to the vocal pyrotechnics than is often
the case. With her purity of line and
smooth legato, she was in constant demand
in the higher-lying roles of Mozart
and Richard Strauss. In 1974-75 she
sang no fewer than seven roles in Jean-Pierre
Ponnelle’s acclaimed Mozart cycle in
Cologne. With her voice filling, Popp
consciously moved towards the more central
lyric repertoire and sang Gilda in Verdi’s
Rigoletto (tr. 4) and Lauretta in Gianni
Schicci (tr. 5). As Gilda her trill
is secure and the characterisation impressive
although I suspect her voice here is
fuller than when she made her recording
of the role under Gardelli ten years
earlier (BMG). A creamy tone, expressive
phrasing and sheer musicality are the
vocal characteristics with which Popp’s
singing illuminates the arias on this
polyglot selection, sympathetically
conducted and clearly recorded.
At the time of this
recording Popp has recently set down
her Pamina under Haitink (EMI) and Susanna
on Solti’s starry cast Figaro (Decca).
She was just about to embark on her
first Eva in Der Meistersinger at Covent
Garden. Her singing is fluent, the voice
pliant with just a touch of metal at
the very top as can be heard in Pamina’s
Ach, ich fühl's (tr. 1).
Popp’s fine legato and expression are
heard to particularly good effect in
the Countess’s Dove sono (tr.
6) and her rendition of Rusalka’s Song
to the Moon (tr. 8), a showstopper
in any recital. Her way with words and
facility in languages can be further
sampled in Agatha’s Wie nahte (tr.
2) and Oh! jàky zai! from
Smetana’s Bartered bride (tr. 9). These
are examples. There is no wasted time
on this disc. It fully reflects Popp’s
singing skills and extensive repertoire
at this stage of her career.
Fate bestowed gifts
of ravishing beauty, abundant intelligence
and musicality, and a most beautiful
voice on Lucia Popp. Fate then turned
its other face and she was taken at
the premature age of 54. We are singularly
fortunate that her legacy of recordings
of many of the roles she sang is extensive.
This varied collection was made at the
vocal peak of what might be called her
second period. It is as wide and varied
in repertoire as any other collection
of Lucia Popp’s singing. It enjoys the
added advantage of unity of sound and
conducting that comes from dedicated
sessions and is sometimes lacking when
collections are put together from a
diverse variety of sources. Lovers of
quality singing and of Lucia Popp’s
particular skills should add this clear
and well-recorded disc to their collection.
Robert J Farr
see also review
by Jonathan Woolf
Lucia Popp (soprano) 
