The lustrous Slovak soprano, unforgettable to all who heard her, has been lastingly commemorated at the Vienna State Opera with a bust in the public lobby.

‘I am convinced that something from her is still present here, in the Vienna State Opera,’ said director Dominique Meyer. The late Georg Solti said: ‘I am convinced there will never be another Sophie or Susanna like her.’

Lucia Popp (1939-1993)

photo: Marek Velček/TASR

Andrea Avery, a young high school teacher in Phoenix, Arizona, has written a tender book about how arthritis hijacked her childhood dreams of being a concert pianist.

She concludes: If I was going to have a life with arthritis in it, I am so glad I have had the piano as my companion. Piano has given me something to reach for with my arthritic hand, some reason not to give up on my fingers…Music has made my arthritic life better. Perhaps I am a better musician than I was or would have been—not despite my arthritis, but because of it. Maybe it takes scars to play Schubert and Chopin correctly.

Read a longer extract here.

Buy the book here.